Michelle of Honest & Truly!, a 5 Minutes for Mom contributor, shares her thoughts on Skylanders SWAP Force in this sponsored post.  She was compensated for this article.
My first video game system was an Atari. The one with a single joystick and just one red button. I am continually amazed at how far video gaming has come – and how fast. Â Don’t get me wrong, we loved our Atari and playing it, but the new systems and games like Skylanders SWAP Force takes it to a whole new level of fun and interactivity.
As video games began growing in complexity, our house had a dilemma. We loved playing the game and playing with our friends, but as we beat levels, we were reluctant to start a new game with our friends and preferred to simply keep playing where we’d left off trying to beat a new level, which wasn’t always fun for our friends. When Skylanders was first introduced, one of my favorite parts about it was how it was set up to be played across multiple platforms. Â Each character could be taken from the Xbox Kinect at my house and played on the Wii at my friend’s house, and nothing would be lost and it didn’t matter if we had different gaming systems. The game characters were fun with unique personalities, and the wee ones enjoyed playing with them outside the video game, as well. Â Skylanders was cemented as a must-have in my mind at that point.
Now Skylanders has one upped themselves, and the Skylands world is even more amazing.  The 16 new Lightcoreâ„¢ characters have interchangeable top and bottom halves.  Each character has its own personality and skills, and swapping a top for a bottom creates a whole new character with different abilities.  It opens up all new worlds of creativity and geometrically increases the characters available. The 16 Lightcoreâ„¢ characters become more than 250 characters through the swapping.  Even better?  If you have previous characters from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure® or Skylanders Giantsâ„¢, those still work to play Skylanders SWAP Force, so they haven’t become obsolete.
The new characters have new abilities, which means you can explore even more of Skylands than you could before. Â The new characters can fly, climb, dig, bounce, and teleport, which takes you places you could never visit before. Â In SWAP Force, a group of Skylanders were caught in a volcano eruption on the Cloudbreak Islands. Â They were split in half (which is why you can now swap bottom and top halves) and sent to Earth. Â While the Skylanders are out of action, Kaos has returned with a new evil plot, and the Skylanders must get back to Cloudbreak to stop him before all of Skylands is destroyed.
Just like in other Skylanders games, there are various play modes that offer different types of gaming depending on who you’re playing with and how you want to play. Â In Skylanders SWAP Force, there’s both solo and team survival mode, a rival mode, a battle arena mode, and a ring out mode. Â With the game rated E10+ for cartoon violence, it’s a game that just about everyone will enjoy playing.
Skylanders SWAP Force is available on Nintendo Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, as well as Xbox and Xbox One, and Playstation 3 and 4. Â The starter pack for SWAP Force is just $299.99 and includes a Wii U system, new portal, the video game, 3 Skylanders figures, a character collector poster, 3 sticker sheets with secret codes, and 3 trading cards. Â You can also buy individual SWAP Force action figures ($14.99) as well as the core Skylanders action figures ($9.99) that will play on any portal.
Michelle may never stop running around Chicagoland, but she always makes time for the important things in her life – her wee ones, cooking, reading, and spending time with friends – and of course, writing. You can see what she’s up to on her blog Honest & Truly! or on Twitter where she tweets as @HonestAndTruly.
Hi my name is Glenda. I know Im late for the giveaway! I still wound like to join.
My son would love this
awesome giveaway .. would love to win this
It’s really cool!
My grandson would like it.
this would be an awesome gift
Thank you for the great giveaway please count me in 🙂
My son would love this!!! This is pretty awesome!!!! 🙂
My Nephew would love this game.
Our family has always wanted a Wii. Thanks.
My kids have been talking about this! Thanks for the chance!
We just got a regular wii (upgraded from a ps2).My 4 kids have been asking to try the skylanders games and asking for a wii u.This would be amazing and something I would not be able to give them.Thank you so much for the chance!
Wow what an awesome giveaway!
This is awesome!!! 🙂
We love skylanders. This would make a great Christmas gift for my son.
this sounds like something my nephews would love!
Dream win right here. I think I’d be best loved forever. 🙂
This would be a lot of fun for my son. Thanks!
wow, another amazing giveaway!
Love this place
Something my grandson and husband could do together.
This is on one of the kids, wish list, for when we can spare this much money.
This is definitely a game I’ve wanted to try out with my kids!
My brothers had that original Atari too! Thought it was the greatest thing ever, although they’d never let me play it. Thank you!
My boys would love this! Thanks for the great giveaway!
My husband would love to play this with the kids!
I love all your awesome giveaways, thank you for the chance!
U guys ROCK! I Would love to win this for my baby girl.
We THANK YOU so much for this AWESOME OPPORTUNITY.
Very cool. I’m sure this would many many kids…and adults happy.
you have amazing giveaways…thanks for the chance!
This would be a fantastic present for my son.
Amazing giveaway!! Thank you for a chance to win!!!
Ashley @ PapertoThread
A whole new system? The kids would love that!
This is at the top of my son’s Christmas list!
My son would love it!
I would love to win this for my kids. Thanks so much.
Would be an awesome gift!!
This is awesome! You have no idea how over the moon my son would be for this for xmas! Thanks for the chance it would be amazing to win 🙂
how fun for son!
Thanks for the giveaway!
I know a little boy who loves skylanders so much!
Kids would love this
this make a nice gift for either a boy or girl.. would donate it to toys for tots program here in central vermont
My son has been begging for a Wii U!
ooh what a great prize! would love to share with my niece and nephew!
Fabulous set. My kids would love this!
Skylanders is a hit here-this is at the top of the list
My nephews would love this!
This would make a very nice Christmas present!
Thanks for an awesome giveaway! my kids would love this!
OMG!!! wow what a wonderful prize to win thanks for this chance
my boys would be ecstatic
My boys would be thrilled to get a set that includes WiiU. It would really make their Christmas.
My son really wants this!!!
We don’t have a WiiU but we’ve been talking about whether or not we need to get one. Maybe we’ll win one!
My kids would be thrilled to find this under the Christmas tree! Thanks for the chance to win!
mrsmchappell at gmail dot com
This will make a great gift for the family to share. The boys are big fans of the Skylanders and are hoping for a Wii U system for christmas
my nephew would love it!
This looks like a set that would make any child happy.
Skylanders are great for boys~
Oh my son wants one sooooooooo bad (the swap force AND the wii U since our wii broke)
OMG my son asked for this exactly!!!!
Thanks for the awesome giveaway
My daughter would be tickled if I won!
Wow, amazing prize! Our family would love to play together!
Looks like fun!
love skylanders – would love it for my nephew.
Our Wii just quit working. This would be awesome to be able to put under the tree.
This would make an amazing gift for my family!
My family love the Wii. Thanks for the giveaway!
my son keeps asking for this. Great giveaway!
My 11 year old no longer has any game systems and would absolutely love this
i would love to win this for my grandson
I’ve never heard of a Wii U.
My son would love this! Looks fun.
My daughter and son would both like this. Looks like a fun game!!
Me kids wouldn’t know how to act if they got an expensive gift like this for Christmas and with Skylanders too
My kids love Skylanders. This new game looks really cool.
My brothers love Skylanders. What a gift this would be.
thanks for the chance 🙂
my nephew loves Skylander
i’d love to win this for my son
An awesome holiday gift idea!
Now THIS would make someone in my house veryveryveryveryveryvery happy at Christmas! 😀 So fun!
my kids would be bouncing off the walls for this loveeeeeeeeeeeeee
Great prize pack, thanks.
My kids would flip out if they found this under the tree!
I think I know several people in my house that would love this!
thank you for the giveaway!
I’d love to win this for my boys.
Thanks for the chance!
Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
Good luck to everyone and thank you for this awesome giveaway!
This looks really amazing
Wow this is fantastic!
My daughter would love this
Awesome gift for my age boy. Love this! Love the web site too!
I would love to win this for my niece.
happy holidays! thank you for this giveaway
If I won this, my daughter would go crazy!
This is on my oldest son’s wishlist! Thank you 🙂
My girl friends son would love this
Thanks for the opportunity =]
My nephew loves Skylanders!
my grandsons love skylanders
Skylanders is such a fun game to play. Love it! Thanks!
This would make a great Christmas present for my son. Thanks.
partymix25(at)hotmail(dot)com
There are two little boys in my life who would go ballistic were they to get this!
would love this for my little cousin.. she is such a great student and really deserves it
My son would go nuts over this! Skylanders is on our wish list.
I would like to win this so I can give it to my brother as a Christmas present
my nephew loves Skylanders.. would love to win!
This is great! We currently don’t have any type of gaming systems so this would be awesome!
I would love to win this for my son!
I would love to play with the Wii U
Would be a major gift here with these 2 boys. Sounds like a fun game to play
My husband would love to play this WITH the kids!
This would be fun to win!
this would be a great gift
Wow! This is a cool gift idea.
This is on my sons wishlist
Wonderful gift. Thanks for this chance.
My son would be so happy to get this for Christmas!
This would make an amazing gift!