Skylanders ups the ante this year with the biggest addition the series has ever seen—vehicles. Really expensive ones, as it happens. As a result, they’ve also changed the structure of the game in ways major and minor. The odds are good that if you’ve been playing the rest of the series, Skylanders: Superchargers won’t be where you stop and that’s a relatively good thing.
Crass commercialism aside, Superchargers is pretty fun, just like the rest of the series. The mix of over-priced physical product and a genuinely solid and kid-friendly action game has worked wonders for Activision’s bottom line, but also put them in the position of having to figure out just how much to change the game up each year.
There have been bizarre attempts—like the ill-advised Swap Force, where the premium figures came apart, leading to parental rage and confusion over finding severed bottoms and tops everywhere—but adding vehicles feels like a natural progression. There are three types—land, sea and air—and to explore every section of each level, you’ll need at least one of each. In fact, if you lose the car-type land vehicle that comes with the game, you can’t really play at all. The sea and air segments are optional (yet still part of the main plot, unlike previous side missions) and completing both side missions in each level is the only way to earn a three-star rating for the level.
This is a pretty radical and, frankly, overtly money-hungry way to go. Prior games gave players one star just for beating the level, but the other two were for actual skill-based achievements, such as not dying and completing the level under a specific time limit. Here, you’re merely rewarded for having spent money. This is a noteworthy step back for the series, although Activision probably thinks it’s a grand way to sucker players into spending as much money as possible.
The other issue with the vehicles centers around the bizarre control scheme. In straight up linear races, the driving/flying/boating is fine. Superchargers offers a very basic, serviceable driving mechanic akin to classic arcade racers with no interest in pesky things like physics and real handling. That works here, given the goofy nature of the overall Skylanders world.
The problem comes during free driving areas where the control scheme feels utterly unnatural and unresponsive to either one’s thumbs or logic. Ostensibly, the craft should go in the direction you point the analog stick instead of more logical left/right steering, but driving is woefully unpredictable and damn near unplayable at times. Even after I figured it out, controlling the vehicles always felt haphazard and frustrating, with no refinement at all.
The other area where the game refuses to improve is the camera, especially when playing co-operatively. It’s too easy for one player to get stuck when the other moves too far away. Instead of letting the camera pan out further, now holding the left shoulder button down teleports you to the other player. It’s a band-aid solution to a problem that has haunted the game since the beginning.