Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack for Wii Review & Giveaway

If you browsed any of the big holiday toy catalogs this year, like Toys R Us, Target and Walmart, you probably noticed that Skylanders Spyro's Adventure appeared in all of them. This is one of the hottest games this holiday season. When I first saw the Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack I knew this is something that my boys would love and I just had to get my hands on it. Collectible figures that come to life on screen when you place them on the Portal of Power? YES PLEASE! OK, forget the kids. I knew that I would enjoy this too.

In Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, you can ‘Bring Your Toys to Life’ in a boldly innovative adventure game where players collect real-world interaction figures and teleport them directly into the game using a mystical Portal of Power™. Propelled by a story-driven adventure, players take on the role of a powerful Portal Master who can control over 30 different characters, including the beloved fire-breathing dragon Spyro. Players will embark on a fantastical journey into an amazing world, where they will explore mysterious, mythical lands, battle menacing outlandish creatures, collect gold and treasures, and solve interesting puzzles while on a quest to save their world from Kaos, an evil Portal Master.

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure offers a whole new way to play. Kids can have fun playing with the many collectible figures off screen and then bring those characters to life on screen. The "interaction figures" actually store and remember the player's shared experiences such as ability, upgrades and gold collected. So the figures can be brought over to a friend's house to play on their Portal of Power. Wait, what happens if you have a Wii and your friend has an Xbox? And all of the figures can be used across all platforms. With "Cross-platform Playability" you are able to use your figures on other platforms, so you don't have to worry that your friend's is different than yours!

Co-op play with your friends!

There are a few different ways you can play Skylanders Spyro's Adventure: single-player adventure, co-op player adventure or battle.

Explore new worlds.

Take on your enemies.

Player vs. player battle.

Getting everything set up for this game is fairly easy. Their is a USB adapter that gets plugged into the back of your Wii console. This is how the Portal communicates with the Wii. The game will tell you when to place your figure(s) onto the Portal and once you do, you will instantly see that character appear in the game. You then control his actions and movement with your Wii controller and nunchuck. We decided to start off with Spyro because who doesn't love a cute, purple dragon?

Spyro's first adventure with the Portal of Power.

Mommy playing as Spyro.

I found game play to be easy to learn. The nunchuck is used for directional moving and the controller for breathing fire and other actions. My six year old picked it up rather quickly. Definitely a lot of fun. Though it is rated 10+, I didn't have a problem letting my six year old play this and he loved it. I recommend it for the young gamer on your shopping list this holiday season. I plan on picking up some additional figures on Black Friday so my boys can really get into. OK, and for me as well.

Rated: Everyone 10+ for cartoon violence.

Buy
The Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Started Pack retails for $69.99. Additional figures are sold in single pack for $7.99 or 3-pack for $19.99. Available at major retailers like Target, Walmart and Toys R Us.

Pre-Black Friday Sales
The starter pack is on sale for $49.99 and single-pack figures are 2 for $10 at Toys R Us and ToysRUs.com.

Black Friday Sales
All figure packs are Buy 1 Get 1 Free at Toys R Us. Starter pack will be $49.99 at Walmart.

Giveaway
One lucky reader will receive the Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack for the Nintendo Wii. Giveaway Ends 12/05/11 at 12:01 AM EST. Use Rafflecopter form below.

Please note that the opinions and views expressed in this review are my own and based on my personal experience with the product and/or company. You may encounter a different experience with this than I did. I received free product to review.