First I will start by saying ANY of your magic items (a.k.a, items like Hidden Treasure or Sky Diamond, or Golden Piggy Bank) and any of your old Adventure packs will NOT work with Skylanders 5 Superchargers as they did before. Instead, they become "Legendary Treasures" that can have various effects when you place them on the new Skylanders Academy; effects such as spilling treasure, taking you to bonus semi-2D worlds for collecting treasure, and other random effects. Some even do nothing but make the place look a little better. There is no real reason to bring in old Skylanders in your collection to this game either, unless, like me, you don't really want to buy that many Supercharger Skylanders, or you just LOVE your old Skylanders that much. Then there's the fact that you need at least one of the three vehicle types to beat the game 100%, although you can just beat the game with the land vehicles only and move on. Then there's the many bugs in the game, some that cause your Wii U to freeze on random occasions. Mine only froze 3 times. Another disappointing thing about this game is that the gameplay can seem repetitive at times, particularly at the middle stages. By the way, the portal that came with my game was bad. Activision replaced it quickly however. Another VERY disappointing fact is that Super chargers do NOT come with trading cards. Instead they only have stickers, which don't even come in the starter packs.
Now that the bad stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the good stuff.
For the first time the game begins quite chaotically. Kaos has already won and is on the verge of conquering all Skylands, your friends are captured, and everything looks pretty bleak, but even for conquering bad guys, it's not going to be that easy. Once you get your Skylander in (I started with Dark Turbo Charge Donkey Kong), you realize the story is unlike anything else. You are truly fighting to save Skylands this time, and things are made harder to you seeing as the bad guys are on the verge of winning already. I'll admit feeling disappointment when halfway through the game due to it seeming like yet another Skylanders game of the same, however once you pass that halfway mark, the story gets fantastic, and the puzzles and traps become less predictable and more challenging. You'll become ensnared in the game until you finish it, and boy, what a SURPRISE ;).
Another GREAT thing about this game is the fact that you don't have to dunk your wallet contents on bits and pieces just to manage to beat the whole game and see every bit of the story. The vehicles feel a bit hard to maneuver at first, but boy, once you get a good feel for the controls you will wish you could zoom around faster, and with more baddies to blow up along the way. Funny enemy intros are back too, which add a delightful charm to your experience. There are also quite a LOT of new enemies to fight too. (By the way, I recommend you play with Donkey Kong. He is a fantastic Skylander.
Now about Online co-op and racing. I have mixed feelings about this. I only managed to play co-op once, and it felt odd. Can't say much on it because my partner had to leave early. Online racing is decent, although it can be extremely confusing. To me, there were some slowdowns too, but nothing game-breaking. I didn't use the Voice Chat feature, so I cannot comment on that yet.
All in all, I recommend this game to anyone wanting to enjoy Skylanders. It is a fun game with great graphics, features and music. Oh, and for those considering the Dark Edition, a word of warning: The Kaos Tropy doesn't really do much at all.
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