This was one of the skylanders games I actually did get back in the day but didn't actually give it a proper playthrough because the FPS issues in 3DS giants plus overall series burnout by that point turned me off from giving it a shot. Now that I've actually given it a proper playthrough, it sure is a pretty standard kids 3D action platformer. This game ditches the 2-character beam in mechanic of the first two 3DS games to just save whatever characters you own in the game, essentially allowing you to beam in every character at the very start and never have to use the portal again (unless updating your characters levels on the figure is really that important to you). While it does make the game more portable as now you don't need to have a giant figure collection around with you at all times, it also makes the game easier as now you've got a whole army at your call on the bottom screen. The performance issues in this game aren't nearly as bad as they were in 3DS giants, with some areas chugging but overall the game was pretty stable. There were a few graphical and audio glitches tho so yea game still isn't the best coded methinks. The plot is different from the console game (though ngl by this point ive completely forgotten the main console versions plot), and dialog is kept to a minimal so there's really not as much cringe writing or handholding like the main console version was. It's just a short and solid 3D platformer, probably on par with the first game on 3DS. I enjoyed this more than the main console version.

as a kid I genuinely thought this game was impossible, but here we are. Fun in the masochistic sort of way, like playing a troll game I guess. You are just kinda subjected to the whims of pinball and have to adapt to shit on the fly. As a kid I did not like this game whatsoever, but nowadays I don't think its half bad. My recommendation would be to just sit down and try to get a grasp on how the game flows and see if you can manage from there. If you still dont like it, then just drop it lmao. but at least give it a shot yanno?

they took sonic spinball and made it somehow janker and really really easy by showering lives through bonus levels. Plus they totally changed toxic caves making me think that the level layouts are completely different, then pranked me by having the other 3 levels basically downscaled versions of the 16 bit counterpart, which kinda ruins the whole curiosity of what else they could have changed. Other than that, it's sonic spinball. The game gear version probably has bad screen crunch so not sure if you should give that version a shot. either way play the 16-bit version instead.