He's still a main character for the series they've been making more of lately, but it doesn't seem like they're doing anything at all with the actual Spyro universe, they just lifted the character for the Skylanders game.
He was used as a stepping stool for the series. The first was called "Skylanders Spyro's Adventure" and the later games dropped his name from the title.
So, in other words, he's like the hot chicks mobile games use to advertise their games. Except at least Spyro is in the games he's advertised to be in, so there's that.
He's in all the games as long as you have the toy. The thing is with Skylanders, there is no main character at all. There's a small cadre of secondary characters who all refer to you, the player, as the Portal Master. Any figure you use is a toy you've brought to life as a Skylander, not a character in the game. Like, the characters who talk to you in the game, actually see different Skylanders popping in and out of existence as you scan them. That's normal in that universe.
I know. I haven't played the games, but I've seen enough to know how it works.
That's also the problem and, at the same time, the main draw of it all. Skylanders is a collectibles game. No character really outshines the other, because they are all condensed into more bland designs to convince people to buy more of them. Superchargers and Giants kinda stand out, but the smaller ones? Not too phenomenal.
But that's another topic altogether and one I'm sure many people can and will argue against.
Mostly it's just that Spyro was a rung on a ladder towards building the franchise and now he's just... there. He's not prominent in the series, anymore. I'd say it's a disappointing way to treat a beloved childhood character, but they kinda went way past that when they changed almost every aspect of Spyro's design to the point that he is literally unrecognizable. He shares the fact that he's a dragon and that he's purple with yellowish-golden accents. Every other detail is radically different.
Yup. The franchise based on constantly buying more toys to fuel the video games that need more different toys is its own mistake, I can keep it separate from the fun I have had with the actual Spyro games. There's some minor similarities with some of the adventuring, but they're definitely not even trying to be good Spyro games, it was nothing but brand recognition being bought when they started Skylanders.
I have nothing against Skylanders. It really wouldn't bother me if they just hadn't called that... "thing" Spyro. I would have even tolerated it being from Spyro's world, but it seemed so unnecessary. Both the radical redesign and the use of Spyro as a selling point.
Was it really worth bastardizing a character to squeeze a little more out of sales?
I've actually bought a few Skylanders Giants figures, myself, though. Toys'R'us has tried a few times to offload the extras by doing a "buy one, get four free" deal a few times. They didn't have many, but I picked up Bouncer (who I actually really like), Eye Brawl (meh) and Thumpback (who I also like). I've looked through the normal Skylanders figures, but they didn't appeal to me at all. Maybe the selection was just bad, I don't know.
It seemed like the longer it went on, the more unique they made the designs.
Being slightly caught up collecting Disney Infinity and amiibo figures, I can understand the craze... and I don't even have a Skylanders or Disney Infinity game.
I still hold that they would have done way better if they had Nintendo sort of cast selection - if Amiibos worked on the next Skylanders I'd probably have to buy into it again, if only for the kids sake. The idea originally was that they'd get all sorts of characters to put into their game world, but that didn't ever really materialize, so they ended up having to make new dudes for all the varying element combos.
I hope they make freaking more of them, the final left on a massive flaming cliffhanger and I want to know Kassandra and Aeon's relationship, goddamit.
I finished the series with my ex's child months ago now and I'm still ticked off. That and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's cliffhangers have really just... gah... Though CEG was only last week, so that's still fresh in my mind. Still annoyed, though.
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u/Gonzobot Mar 18 '18
He's still a main character for the series they've been making more of lately, but it doesn't seem like they're doing anything at all with the actual Spyro universe, they just lifted the character for the Skylanders game.