What makes Skylanders so entertaining?

[The Negotiator]

I figured this would be a good way to spur some discussion on the board.

What makes Skylanders so entertaining?

I've only had the game for a few weeks, and I already find myself anxious to 3 star every level and max out all my characters. I originally bought the game to focus on PvP. However, I have realized that it is actually pretty deep. The levels are well done and have a good variety of obstacles. The heroic challenges also provide a whole game within a game! I like Skylanders because it is well done. I also like it because it is complex enough for me, but it is simple enough for my wife to get on and smash stuff! I feel like Activision really took a gamble on this new gaming concept. By the looks of the pegs at Walmart I would say it paid off!

What say you? What has compelled you to continue to dump money into this game?

[Yaggleberry Finn]

That's a fairly challenging question... for me I guess it's a variety of things all coming together.

1) It's a fun, well-made game. As we've said elsewhere, if the console version was like the 3DS version, I would've already checked out.

2) There's something about collecting that is addictive and keeps me interested in Skylanders. The characters are creative, look cool, and are different enough from one another that I want them all.

3) Because every character (except Legendaries) unlocks something (even just Heroic Challenges), there's always a reason to get another one.

4) Some characters - Bash, Spyro, Ignitor... - have two good paths. Yes, it's theoretically possible to reset a character and switch it over in order to play the other path. But even with a 250% exp boost, it still takes at least 15 minutes each. I guess it's worth the $ to me to have an extra copy of a character instead.

5) I enjoy the PvP strategy side of things. I quit playing story mode quite a while ago, and even HC's don't get much play time from me. My biggest interest in HC's is building a character up so it can be its best against someone else. Whether it's playing PVP or just thinking about different strategies and matchups, that keeps me interested the most.

[TheWanderer]

For me, much like Yaggleberry, it's about the diversity.

I think that the story mode has enough in it that I won't get bored quickly.

I have to confess that the only character I have played as of yet is Eruptor and have just saved enough gold to choose his path. However, I already feel that I could go back to the same levels and play with one of my other characters.

I also like the way that you can choose how your character performs, through the path choices, for example, Eruptor can be used as a close combat 'rapid hitter' with the Volcanor path, or to be used as a single 'single high damage' character through the Magmantor path.

Although I would love to talk about strategy within the PVP mode, being totally new to the game coupled with never actually playing PVP leaves me under-qualified.

Each character is different enough, even within elements, that really inspires me to get all of them to choose my favourite teams of eight, which I will eventually do.

So there we go, the reasons why I've been hooked on Skylanders.