Early Skylander games had quite traditional local multiplayer. Heath restoring food, various treasures, and even experience points were coveted items that gamers fought over. Also with Skylanders focus on exploration there was nothing worse than hitting an intersection and you go in the opposite direction from your friend. The tug of war would continue until one of you made the walk of shame back to the other and accepted who was going to take the lead this time.
Some of those issues were potentially even addressed in Trap Team, but Skylanders Superchargers takes it a step further. Even making the new driving modes as painless as possible while in local multiplayer. Simply one player drives while the other controls attacks, boosts, and the like.
Health items, anything that gives you coins, and even experience are all pooled together now. What one gamer gets, both players in co-op receive. So there’s no more accidentally picking up that slice of pizza when your at full health and your teammate is next to dead. Everyone receives the benefits. This is also handy for gamers who have an extensive army of Skylanders. It makes leveling up with a friend even faster.
If all of this sounds par the course please excuse me. I just wrapped up playing through Spyro’s Adventure, the first Skylander game, so I could be going from archaic rules here. In news that I’m pretty sure is new, co-op now includes the option to hold the controllers left bumper to teleport to where your partner is. Either way, that’s really cool! No longer are you doing those long exhaustive walks across the screen, or if you’re stuck, unable to get up a flight of stairs because of the distance between characters. You can just teleport right on over now. This is handy for more difficult platforming sections as well. Though they do seem to be improved on their own if you do fall off. However, if you get separated from your friend, you can just zip to where they are with a brief delay as you hold the left bumper. Super handy.
There is an included race mode. We don’t know how this stacks up to the Wii or 3DS version, but you can race in two player mode, side by side. Odds are you’ll need extra purchased toys for the other modes, but land vehicle races include Instant Spitfire and Instant Hot Streak. These are digital versions of a vehicle and a character that come with the starter pack. Interestingly, these are included mainly with the digital download Portal Owners Pack version of the game. So they do come with the main game as well and can be used for two player mode to allow you to race two Hot Streak cars against each other. Only two tracks are included for land, sea, and air with another two per type being unlocked by additional toys sold separately. We only had a land vehicle, so I don’t know if all vehicles allow you an “Instant” version to race your friends in local races. There is only so much room on the portal for figures after all.
Things feel friendlier now. You really are working with the other person instead of in competition to level your own Skylander and get coins to purchase new abilities. It’s all about progress and focusing on the missions at hand. This really brings players together and makes for a more enjoyable experience.
