I've known about Skylanders for a long time, about since they were first announced online. I admit that I wasn't really excited about it. I hated Spyro's new look and when I heard there were 32 (I think) playable characters, I thought it would have been a horrible game.

Likewise, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Many other people were upset with the direction they've taken Spyro, removing him from being the main character and reducing him to be just one of many, not standing out as much as he used to.

Part of me wasn't sure if I even wanted to give this game a chance, especially after learning about how you have to buy the characters to play as them. This felt like nothing more than a ploy to make more money, and I'm sure it was. A clever scheme you could say.

But my brother bought it for me for my birthday. I didn't want to be rude, so I figured I'd give it a chance. I did have some intention to anyway, at some point whenever I could afford it. So I sat down and played the game for a while, eventually gaining more characters to use.

And I have to say I am quite surprised with the game. It is not very complex, but it is still enjoyable. It's kind of akin with something like Angry Birds. It's so simple anyone could do it, but it still manages to be fun to play and addicting even.

Skylanders has a ridiculously simple plot: the main villain, Kaos, destroys something of great value to the Skylands and you have to gather up elements and recreate the light to push back the darkness and then fight Kaos. That's about it, from what I'm seeing. It's not very complex at all, which means that young kids could easily understand it, which makes sense, since that's the audience the game makers were going for.

The main villain, Kaos, is a lot of laughs. He's voiced by the same guy who does Zim from Invader Zim, so you can expect a lot of similar speaking mannerisms from this guy. He tries so hard to be evil, but he ends up just looking silly and he's such a denialist when it's losing that it's hilarious. Sometimes I play just to listen to this guy talk.

While the gameplay is simple, they make up for it and found a way to make things more challenging. Some sections are closed off to all but a Skylander of a certain type, Skylanders of certain types can do better in other places, and some areas may require you to have more Skylanders at hand just in case (such as boss battles).

For instance, when I was in my first battle, I was surprised at how much Spyro sucked at it, but how Trigger Happy, whom I've neglected earlier, fared much better. That's the thing about Skylanders; sometimes the characters can really surprise you and pull through when you thought they would not.

Another thing I really liked was how the characters actually felt different from each other. There are no cloned moves that I've seen; every character as their own unique attacks, requiring different strategies that you could come up with. For instance, Zap has a sliding move, making him ideal for darting around quickly and moving bombs that have time limits on them. Trigger Happy is a great long range character who is more powerful than he looks, and he comes in handy in boss fights, at least in my experience.

And I like the touch of the new Portal Master being the game player. While this can be cheesy, and I didn't like it much at first myself, but being talked to by the characters of the game, being the one who is helping them out, being the one that Kaos refers to at times, it makes you feel like a part of that world in a sense.

I won't lie when I said I did feel a tinge of intimidation after some lines Kaos says. While yes it's just a game and he's not really threatening, things feel different when you're literally the one they're talking about (since the Portal Master, the new one, they refer to are the game players). The way they handled making players feel more connected to the game is just great I think, and I'm sure it'll help the kids feel like they accomplished something.

If you're looking for a deep involving story, I'd skip this one. But if you just want to have fun, I'd give this game a try. If you're a fan of Insomniac Spyro, I'd give this a go. While it's not exactly like Insomniac and not entirely about Spyro, this game comes much closer to the spirit of the original trilogy than Legend of Spyro does.

I haven't beaten the game yet, but I'm hoping to soon.