Skylanders Figures: Which are the most popular characters

December 22nd, 2011

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Skylanders figures have created quite a storm amongst retailers over the past few weeks. And with all of the different toys to choose from do you really know which Skylanders characters are the best? Here we take a quick look at 5 of the most popular Skylanders toys currently available at GamingZap.

1.) Dark Spyro Skylanders Figure

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Dark Spyro is the only ‘dark’ variant Skylanders Character available and is exclusively sold with the Skylanders 3DS Starter Pack. Due to hugely popular demand we are now selling the rare dragon singularly. He features a unique colour scheme and individual powers and abilities. Being more adept at magical thunder and slash attacks makes this rare skylanders figure is a worthy addition to any collection.

2.) Ignitor Skylanders Figure

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Ignitor was once brave knight before being tricked by a cunning witch into wearing a magical suit of armor that he was told would resist fire from a dragon. But as it turned out, it was made of cursed steel bonding him to a ghostly suit of armour, with a soul of fire!

Utilising his superior strength, Ignitor joined the Skylanders to fight evil and and find the witch responsible. Again, only available with the 3DS starter pack, the Ignitor Skylanders Character is available individually from GamingZap.


3.) Stump Smash Skylanders Figure

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The Stump Smash Skylanders Character was once a magical tree that spent most of his time sleeping peacefully in the forests of Skylands. Then one day he awoke to discover his entire forest had been chopped down and logged by trolls – himself included. His long branches were gone, leaving him with only powerful mallets for hands, which he used to smash the troll tree-cutting machines.


4.) Voodood Skylanders Figure

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Voodood is a might warrior from the Skylanders Series. The orc has his trusty Axe Reaver to destroy his enemies, which contains magical energy! This Voodood Skylanders figure uses his grappling hook at the end of his staff to draw his foes close so he can electrocute them and win the battle!

5.) Drobot Skylanders Figure

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Drobot is a curious dragon Skylander who assembled himself a robotic suit to shoot lasers from his eyes, give him a deep booming voice, and the ability to shoot spinning gears. With such power – more than most other dragons – Drobot joined the Skylanders to help protect the residents of Skylands.

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Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure: An Overview

December 18th, 2011

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“For generations, the Skylanders have used their magical powers and weapons to protect Skylands. But now, an evil tyrant has frozen and banished them to Earth. Only you can bring them back to life in their world to save Skylands forever.”

The latest childhood craze to hit the high street stores this Christmas is Activision’s ‘Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure’ video game for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. Much more than a video game, the franchise bridges the gap between virtual and real world play by bringing the Skylanders figures to life!

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Included with in the starter pack is the video game, ‘Portal of Power’ and three unique Skylanders action figures. By placing the figure on the ‘Portal of Power’ and like magic your Skylander will come to life in the video game, allowing you to explore, battle and discover countless adventures with friends.

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The great thing about the Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure Toys is that once they’ve been transported into the game through the ‘Portal of Power’ all of their upgrades and character information is memorised; so the next time you play that character all their previous in-game experience are already there, and you can use them across all platform so you can play with all your friends.

You don’t just have to use your Skylanders in the main game either; you can place two Skylanders on the ‘Portal of Power’ and explore new areas together with your friends or battle it out. Choose a Battle Arena, go head-to head and it’s a fight to the finish.  Which Skylander comes out on top will depend on how often you play with and upgrade them.

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There’s over 30 different Skylanders belonging to one of eight different elements (Air, Life, Undead, Earth, Fire, Water, Magic, Tech) to collect allowing for countless hours of adventures and battles.

The Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures Triple Assortment Pack A as well as pack B and C are available for pre-order now from GamingZap!

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Hands On Review: Tritton AX Pro 5.1 Universal Gaming Headset

November 17th, 2011

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There are many affordable gaming headsets available on each platform, boasting exciting features like wireless connections, surround sound and real-time equalisers. Indeed, if you’re willing to spend approximately £50 you’ll be able to find an excellent system that includes many if not all of these features, with excellent sound quality to boot.

Where these systems fall down, however, is their compatibility. They are typically tailor-made for each platform and occasionally two; the norm is that they’ll be compatible with either the Xbox 360 or the PS3, with token PC compatibility thrown in to sweeten the deal.

It is the realm of the highest end headsets to offer universal compatibility; that is to say a gaming headset that genuinely works with each of the three platforms. These are usually quite expensive affairs, but some can offer advanced features or above-average sound quality to partially negate the universal compatibility premium.

The Tritton Ax Pro is one such headset, combining many of the top features you’d look for in any good gaming headset with universal compatibility. Today we’ll be looking at this headset to see how it compares, both to headsets in the same price range and cheaper headsets tailored to a specific console. Let’s get right into it.

Physical Design & Packaging

The first place we’ll start is the packaging. As you’d expect for a headset that offers universal compatibility, there are quite a few bibs and bobs included, which makes for a rather hefty package. Let’s go through it.

First, we have the look of the box itself. The box features an eye-catching if not elegant design and colour scheme, showing the headset itself and hiding the multiple of wires that surely lurk within. It’s not quite the beauty of an Apple or SteelSeries case, but hey! We’re not buying this headset for the box, are we?

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Instead we’re buying it for these reasons, the features listed on the front of the box:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
  • 3D Directional Precision Gaming Headset
  • Digital Optical Input
  • 8 Precision Speakers With Individual Sound Field Controls
  • Optimized Two Way Communcation XBOX Live, Playstation Network and PC
  • Adjust Game Volume Separately From Communication Volume
  • Break-Away Inline Controller

It’s a fair introduction of the headset that includes most of the relevant information, so that’s all well and good. Here’s the back of the box now, which has more information along the same lines:

  • Optimized for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Hifi Audio
  • True 5.1 Surround Sound Via 8 Precision Speakers
  • Digital and Analog Inputs
  • Digital Analog Converter (DAC)

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Now, let’s have a look at what’s inside. Of course, we’ll have the headset itself, which includes a rather industrial design, mostly silver with some orange accents.

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The 5.1 sound is achieved through a quartet of dedicated driver channels, including a pair of 30mm drivers for the front and surround speakers, a 23mm driver for the centre channel and a 40mm driver for the .1 LFE.

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The Tritton logo on the side of the headphones lights up, but does so without being overly ostentatious.

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The headset system also includes a great many attachments to ensure universal compatibilty. Indeed, as you open the box you’ll marvel at how many separate pieces reside within.

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As you can see the attachments of the headset are quite substancial, including a control box that requires its own power supply. Even more cables than shown here are required; you could potentially need two 3x stereo 3.5mm lines, an optical audio cable, a USB cable, a power cable and an Xbox 360 2.5mm headset cable.

Here’s a closeup of that control box, through which most of the stuff routes.

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The control box includes two connections to the headset itself (so if you buy two Tritton headsets, you can have both plugged in at once to a single source). It also includes an optical audio out, USB out and two sets of three 3.5 mm jacks for 6 channel analog sound in and out.

Generally speaking, you’ll want to connect with a combination of the optical audio for game sounds and USB for voice chat. However, this is how it actually works:

  • PC: Connect using analog six channel sound for game sounds and analog microphone for voice chat, bypassing the control box. Analog is used because the optical out option on built-in sound cards doesn’t support 5.1, a fault of motherboard manufacturers rather than the headset itself.
  • Xbox 360: Connect using optical out for game sound and 2.5mm jack to the Xbox 360 controller. The best possible solution, but damn that 2.5mm jack!
  • PS3: Everything works as expected: optical out for game sound and USB for voice chat. Excellent!

The headset also includes an inline remote, which extends the reach of the headset to a viable length, approximately 3 metres. The inline remote has a great many controls on it, including individual buttons for adjusting the volume levels of the subwoofer and each channel. There are also separate controls for adjusting the volume level of the voice chat. Finally, there’s a 2.5mm jack for connecting to those damnable Xbox 360 controllers.

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There’s also an additional set of ear pads and head rail pads, if you wear out the original set, as well as all of the cables necessary to connect to a PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 and power the unit. I think that’s about it. Let’s move onto the crux of the review, the testing.

Testing Methodology

In order to test the headset in varied conditions, I’ll use it in the following circumstances:

  • PC Gaming, using the 6 channel analog connection and USB voice chat
  • PC Gaming, using the optical connection and USB voice chat
  • Xbox 360 gaming, using the optical connection and 2.5 mm voice chat
  • PS3 gaming, using the optical connection and USB voice chat

In all of the tests above, I’ll also be trying out the voice communication abilities. I don’t have a second Tritton headset, so I won’t test the two-headsets-one-control-box. To save space, I will list the overall results,

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