#Spyro's Adventure 3DS

[unofskylanderspages]

Did you know? Although the Skylander doesn't battle Vathek in the console versions, players are able to fight him in the 3DS versions of Spyro's Adventure and Giants.

[homeskllet]

the original 32!

plus some close ups, since the image is long and small.

this is also the top screen of a 3ds theme i made! if you have a homebrewed 3ds and want to use the theme, you can find it here.

[turqrambles]

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure 3DS really is such a bizarre game. None of the NPCs that are in every other game are here (that's right, there's no Flynn, Cali, or Hugo) so your only companions are these weird sages of the Radiance Islands. You collect "radiance" instead of coins or treasure. The main bad guy is just "Ooo that's a scary guy!".

The writing is weirdly dry and flavorless for the fun guacamole monster franchise. I know they were definitely still figuring themselves out in SSA, but man this Generic Fantasy Realm writing sure is Generic Fantasy Realm-ing.

I don't think I'm going to remember any of these locations after I'm done.

[shyacross]

I've been playing ssa 3ds and holy cow itz such an underated gem. even if you aren't a fan of Skylanders I highly recommend it. just the levels with the challenges that build off each other for replayability, the perfect mix of combat and platforming in gameplay, the characters switching system still keeping the idea of multiple chars in a level but limiting so u have to adjust to the challenge, its actually all amazing. I do wish so I didn't get my touch screen dirty w my grubby hands that could switch w the d pad bc it literally does nothing but whatevs

anyways what I've done to deal w there being 32 lander's and not figuring how how to pace them, I'm only using half the cast, but only start off w two and (skipping the first 6) unlocking a random lander each 6 crystals til 90

i began w sunburn and stealth elf (I didn't originally start w this idea so I had used zap but shushh)(also this is my first time using sunburn and let me say he is BEAUTFIUL) and now have 18 crystals so I've spun a random spinner and unlocked dino rang then voodood. what's nice bout this is is gets me to go back and replay levels if I couldn't do a certain elemental gate

if u🫵 want to try this, heres what I did said more coherently (hopefully): get 16 landers for playthrough, start off w two of your picking (or randomize them), and at each 6 crystals(besides first) spin a random spinner with the picked lander's besides one u already got and add them to your cast, and u would do this up to 90 (bc you have 16 but minus 1 for 1st level and up to 90 crystals so you get one for each 6 but your gonna need a 2nd lander before you're able to get 6 crystals)

[zsky01]

I have made a low poly Spyro for a client

[chloegamesbroficial]

Spyro and Adventure Foxy

Art created by me

[demilypyro]

https://twitch.tv/demilypyro

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

What are the gangs favorite type of video games to play? Weather it’s Mario, Pokémon, sports, rhythm games, horror games, etc etc.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!!!! Now...

Poppy prefers tabletop games more, but she can be often caught playing or seeing someone else playing The Sims. She LOVES that game - Angel has The Sims 2 installed on their computer, and when they all move to a bigger house Poppy gets her own PC so she can play TS2 as much as she wants.

Kissy doesn't play much on her own, but she really loves 3D platformers and adventure games. Her favorites are the og Spyro the Dragon trilogy! I think she loves watching others play pokémon as well.

Huggy loves racing games. Get anything with a car and he's instantly in love with it.

I can Mommy Long Legs making super over-the-top stories on The Sims 2 as well, so she and Poppy often share news of what their sims are doing. They are both active in forums and are trying to make their own custom content for the game!

Bunzo is a pokémon guy.

PJ Pug-a-Pillar doesn't like playing games in general but he LOVES watching others play, esp if there's lots of cutscenes. It's like watching a movie!

Miss Delight falls in love with Portal 2 when it's released, but I think she's really picky with her puzzle games. She likes being a bit creative on her solutions! She's also really into RPGs. I think the Fallout franchise is her comfort game.

Catnap and Craftycorn are walking Silent Hill encyclopedias, but they LOOOOVE survival horror. Catnap's fav is the original SH1, while Craftycorn loves Haunting Ground (PS2) and SH3.

Bobby on the other hand prefers Resident Evil and Clock Tower 3, but when it's not horror it's definitely a more experimental game. She cries everytime she plays Shadow of the Colossus but she loves it.

Bubba, much like Miss Delight, is SUPER into RPGs and puzzle games, but pokémon and Ace Attorney have conquered his heart. He LOOOVES gushing about it!

Picky's favorite is Animal Crossing! It makes her feel safe and she loves just walking around her town. She made a really impressive one and everyone wants updates from her villagers, Picky loves giving them.

Kickin can't get enough of any FPS or action-adventure game, and he can and WILL ragequit if he's playing online and his teammates start being rude to him or each other. Thankfully he learned really quick how to deal with the more toxic players so now he can truly relax. Unfortunately doomed to become a League of Legends player when it comes out.

Hoppy also loves FPS, but 3D platformers and open-world games are her favorites. Anything that gives her plenty of freedom to move around or just be silly immediately catches her attention! I think she becomes a Team Fortress 2 player.

Dogday prefers to watch rather than play and he gets SO invested. I think Miss Delight likes playing puzzle games with him because they figure out solutions together, but if Dogday were to chose a game for himself to play it would probably be a rythimn game. It gives him the zoomies.

The other smaller toys all have their own individual preferences, so talking about them is more complicated!

Everyone becomes obsessed with Minecraft when it's released. Catch Catnap pranking everyone on their shared beta server by pretending to be Herobrine.

When Angel gets them an Xbox 360 they have many game nights where they play on the Kinect.

Speaking of which, Angel is down to play literally everything, but all the toys know they aren't very keen on anything horror-related. Not because it's scary, it's just that Angel finds them boring after surviving Playtime Co. They probably have an encyclopedia-level knowledge of pokémon, tho.

Prototype doesn't play videogames, but enjoyes watching the others play. Just don't put ANY war games in front of him and we're all good, otherwise he stops watching.

[quonka]

The Lasting Effects on Writing Concentration That an Aggressive, Near Insatiable Childhood Obsession with Neopets: The Darkest Faerie Can Inflict on a Man

The first console that I ever owned was the PlayStation 2, and while we had many games, most of them were nearly and completely unplayable. Mostly because I was like, eight.

That's why I made my sister play them.

Maybe "made" is a strong word, it was technically her console-- her games-- but I definitely begged her to play certain games more than others, just so I could sit and watch on the teeny tiny little box television, its frame decorated with neon orange and white acrylic paint, and SpongeBob stickers.

I had a couple favorites I liked to cycle through, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom, and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa -- but no game was I more annoying about than Neopets: The Darkest Faerie.

Just a Bit of Background Research

Neopets: The Darkest Faerie is a third person, single player action-adventure game released in 2005 and developed by Idol Minds Digital Entertainment for publishment on the PlayStation®2 system.

The console game is based off Neopets.com, which was an extremely popular fantastical pet collection and care browser game published to the internet all the way back in 1999. While still active today, it has gone through multiple dubious changes and similarly perhaps questionable owners. However, the current owner of the site, Dominic Law, is looking to really dig in and overhaul the site for a modern era, with a budget of four million dollars.

I did play on the Neopets website when I was younger, but not as much, or as well as my sister knew how to. I more just played the minigames to earn Neopoints for my sister's account-- Neopoints being the sites currency.

Nostalgia Brained

despite my lack of relative interest to the site, I was completely enamored as a child with Neopets: The Darkest Faerie.

The game was, and still is, fantastic.

The graphics are... well. PlayStation®2 graphics, with the console's technological limitations making for a better experience when played on a much smaller, less detail-oriented television screen in the early 2000's than the ones we have today.

But despite the game generally being a little blurry, in my nostalgia-coated opinion, it still holds up pretty well. With its characters and semi-open world all being taken and expanded on directly from the Neopets website and put into 3D; there's a lot of gorgeous design and color and creativity given to the environments and the anthropomorphic Neopets inhabiting them.

You can even switch between the two main characters, a knight named Tor and a sorceress named Roberta whenever you want, only having to press two buttons at the same time once you get to the third act of the game where they meet. This allows you to instantly be able to change between their respective brute melee sword attacks and ranged magic attacks.

There's magic, and monsters, and multiple heroes and villains, all thrown into a medieval fantasy setting-- and despite how many video games I've either played myself or watched others play over the years, I really can't think of a single other game like it, in both gameplay and soundtrack.

"I'll Do it Myself"

Being a game made in 2005, there is nowhere to buy the official Neopets: The Darkest Faerie soundtrack like you can with many modern-day games. The cinematic scoring producer of the game, Jack Wall, doesn't even have the soundtrack listed on his website with his other projects, or on his Spotify. The In-Game music producer Keith Leary doesn't even appear to have a website or Spotify.

This has left the creatives of YouTube to render their own easily accessible versions of the music.

In 2019, user monster860 uploaded their three-hour seven-minute render of the OST to YouTube, "This music was rendered using the tool I wrote, so it might not be totally accurate."

Then, in 2021, they uploaded an eight-hour five-minute render of the soundtrack, "This is the new and improved Neopets: TDF soundtrack video! Now featuring all of the variations, adding up to 8 hours, and also in stereo. In addition, certain issues are fixed, such as the flute part in the Bazaar District music not having the trills."

While not being technically official, it sounds very much like how it does in-game, and the inclusion of all the minor variants, as well as any cut and discarded tracks make this cataloguing of the game's OST perfect to study to for me.

Cause and Effect

In last week's post about Darkwood, I talked about how the horror game's OST was such an essential part to the horror atmosphere, that the intense focus I carried in-game, transferred out of the game when simply just listening to the soundtrack, and that it helped me with concentrating on my work.

Neopets: The Darkest Faerie OST has a similar effect, but in a different manner.

I have kept my PlayStation®2 specifically for the purpose of playing this game every couple years or so, with my oldest save on the disc being from 2014, and my newest being just from last month, 2024. I have beaten the game in entirety at least three or four times, and created a new save file much more than that.

Because I have played the game so incredibly often since childhood, whenever I have the soundtrack on, I can remember exactly where each song plays in the game.

It of course helps that monster860's video has its chapters titled with song currently playing, which is where it is found in the game-- but most of the time as I'm writing in a different tab, just through memory I am able to recognize the specific area, what its main color palette is and what character is available to play, and how far that specific song is in the game.

Instead of the soundtrack promoting a bit of healthy fear in order to get me working, the Darkest Faerie OST is calming, comforting really.

Don't get me wrong though, there are a lot of really fun and intense tracks in the game, my favorite specifically being "Brightvale Battle" at 4:39:32. Just starting off with that call and response melody at the beginning, on what I assume to be some sort of keyboard, is immediately effective at grabbing one's attention, which is apt for fight music. Then a little later into the song at 4:40:05, when the flute comes in on top of all the lower instruments, it sounds pretty and adds a bit of contrast while still feeling just as powerful as the heavier drums.

My absolute favorite piece of that song, however, is when the piccolo comes in at 4:40:41. It immediately pierces through the other instruments, sharp and passionate, and extremely impactful for how little time it actually stays in the song.

There are so many songs on the soundtrack just like this one that definitely don't inspire the horror that Darkwood's does but are comparably exciting-- and I think this drive that I get from more of the battle tracks, in combination with the calmer, atmospheric tracks-- in further combination with the nostalgic familiarity I have with the game and its idiosyncrasies-- leads to the Darkest Faerie OST promoting a similar concentration on the direct task at hand for me.

Recommendations

Honestly, I definitely would recommend for anyone struggling with concentrating when writing to try listening to the soundtrack of a beloved childhood videogame, or one that just meant a lot to you at some point. I'm not certain it will work like it does for me, but it'd be interesting to see more people talk about what their specific "work music" is and the story behind it.

Unfortunately, with the game being so old and so niche, the only way to play Neopets: The Darkest Faerie legally now is through buying a PlayStation®2 that works, and then also the disc. This is a lot to ask, I recognize.

If anyone is interested though, there are countless playthroughs on YouTube, so just find a commentator that doesn't annoy you and enjoy!

With the 25th anniversary of Neopets coming up, along with Dominic Law's aforementioned four-million-dollar plan to renovate the site, hopefully there is at least a miniscule possibility for a remaster of the game. I realize this is incredibly unlikely but considering both Spyro and SpongeBob: Battle For Bikini Bottom got their remasters semi-recently, maybe it's not completely out of the cards.

[marshallpupfan]

have you played any of the paw patrol video games?

I've only played three of them; "PAW Patrol: On a Roll", "PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay", and "PAW Patrol: A Day in Adventure Bay". The first two on PC/Steam, and the last on Android.

I don't have much to say about On a Roll. It was interesting when I first started playing, but for me, it got boring after a while. I understand it's for a very young audience, but I wish they would've eased up on the tutorials. Restricting Everest and Tracker to the last few stages was kind of silly, imo. Well, if anything, seeing Marshall pull a Super Mario Sunshine across a lake was pretty entertaining. 😄

Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay was a lot better, imo. Switching from a 2D platformer to 3D was a smart idea, and as someone who enjoys collectathons, I had some fun with it. It's still pretty easy, but I understand it's designed that way. With that said, it was surprisingly short, especially compared to the first game, and there were certain tasks that dragged the game down a bit. Still, out of the two, I recommend it a lot more. Including a Pup Pup Boogie mini-game was also pretty cool.

PAW Patrol: A Day in Adventure Bay was cute, since it lets you take care of the pups, play some frisbee with them, etc. There's not a whole lot to it otherwise, but for the price, I can't complain. Admittedly, I played this one once a day for nearly a month, and of course, I always selected Marshall... and apparently the game didn't expect this, as it eventually glitched and kept giving me the same mission every time. Ah well, I easily got my money out of it.

I don't plan on playing any of the other games, except maybe PAW Patrol: Grand Prix. I've been curious about it for a while, if only so I can play as Marshall in his Ready Race Rescue gear & vehicle. I've heard it's also easy, and given I'm used to playing Mario Kart at 150cc, I don't know how much enjoyment I'll get out of it. Admittedly, that's why these PAW Patrol games don't exactly appeal to me, since I'm so used to games for an older crowd (Spyro the Dragon, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Metroid, etc). Thus, I may not be the best person to ask for recommendations in terms of PAW Patrol games.

[crusherthedoctor]

Nick here. To throw my hat into this non existent ring, I vastly prefer Sonic Adventure 1 to SA2Battle to the point that 2's Chao Garden is the only reason I keep SA2B installed on my computer. Like SA1 (especially SADX and its various ports) has issues of its own ("IwonderwhathappenedtoSonic?" anyone?) but overall, I find it to be the better game story and gameplay wise.

SA1 is one of my favourite games in the series, and tied with Generations as my favourite of the 3D games, despite my thoughts on the deliberate nature of the Classic to Modern transition being unwise in hindsight due to the divide it created compared to a more seamless transition.

SA2... is not. When comparing the two, I feel that for every step forward SA2 makes, it takes two steps backwards as well. One example being that the six playstyles have been narrowed down to three... but the execution means there's also a lot less Sonic-style gameplay.

A lot of it comes down to preference. I prefer SA1's story despite its own share of flaws, and not just because Eggman is actually the man with the plan until the end as opposed to being strung along throughout the game by someone else's scheme, and although not perfectly executed, its attempt at the Rashomon style of narrative is probably the most balanced out of all the 3D games that attempted it. Chaos is best monster. I don't mind most of the gameplay styles in this one, though I'd probably make Amy a little faster: Big's fishing is the main exception, but even his story can at least be done very quickly if you know what you're doing. Sonic's levels are more uniquely designed in SA1 on the whole than those of SA2. Soundtrack is S-tier. So many little secrets and other points of interest that you're not even required to find. Gamma says a funny with "MODE CHANGE".

And as petty as this may be... it's no secret that I love a good aesthetic, and SA1 is filled with them, complete with those amazing Spyro-tier skyboxes.

They're like the Dude's rug: it completes the room.

To be fair, SA2 does have its own eye-pleasing levels, like Cannon's Core, the outside A.R.K. levels like Final Rush and Meteor Herd, the pyramid levels... but the amount of grey hallways and the like make it a less consistent package in that field compared to SA1.

One more thing: SA1 has the Egg Viper explosion scene. I love that moment, music stopping come the last hit and everything.

[unofskylanderspages]

Towersight Fields is the first level, and tutorial chapter, in the Nintendo 3DS version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. The Skylanders must make it to the safety of the Sanctuary before Hektore catches and destroys them.

[junkyardisles]

fun skylanders dev facts that’ll make you fly with knowledge!

ssa 3ds was made in six months!

every game after giants had that game’s team porting in the last game’s skylanders into their engine and rebuilding them to work in said engine!

giants began development before the first game had even released and was finished in eleven months!

xpec were copying builds of spyro’s adventure while spyro’s adventure was being developed, except they weren’t there from the beginning of development!

imaginators is ran out of time and money!

every skylander is hand painted!

even one extra paint chip on a skylander could cost the company wild amounts of money!

3d printing only began in giants!

hot dog was going to speak with an rp accent but this was changed because people thought it was stupid

[turqrambles]

It sucks that Swap Force 3DS is probably one of the hardest Skylanders game to play since its portal is hard to find and it can't use the more common 3DS portal because I think the fandom is legit missing out on it by not playing it.

* "I miss the grittiness of Spyro's Adventure/Giants art style" - Swap Force 3DS is the last hurrah of that art style and has some pretty intense visuals. Moneybone's mansion has several walls made of rotting flesh.

*"I want more Flynn content" - this game has a bad guy invade Flynn's hometown with an army, steal Flynn's stuff, and kidnap Cali after turning her Undead purely to send a message and Flynn is undisputably the main character in this, no seriously where's the Flynn vs Moneybone content in this fandom.

*"I want to play a Skylanders game where the villain is high stakes and it's not Kaos" - Count Moneybone is planning on ending all life in Skylands with a giant doomsday weapon called The Immortalizer. Just straight up says he's going to turn everyone undead. Everyone will Die. The stakes could not be higher.

And yes, the game is canon. It's referenced in both the console Swap Force and Superchargers.

Also you're missing out on the Día de los Muertos Skylanders level by NOT playing it.

[shyacross]

Terrafin needs to brush his teeth

Terrafin's teeth in SSA 3ds looks copper plated for whatever reason lol. I know it was made by Vicarious Visions and not TFB but I wonder what happened that made his teeth like this

[aquillis-main]

why do people bring up japanese this and that trying to make it an ethnic thing? soj's mid writing for sonic isnt bc they're japanese, mario rpg and final fantasy blows soj out of the water so it's not that. hell there's a reason why their product isnt popular in japan while soa had to do the heavy lifting to make the sonic world actually have a likeable and relatable character with actual lore beyond "dude that just runs around and is a gary stu that everyone worships". y'all can get mad but im saying 100000 percent factuals

Yet Sonic was doing just fine over here and there regardless of SoJ's 'mid writing'. Also, Mario lost popularity in Japan over time, when Nintendo of Japan made a huge ass gamble and made a 3d camera for Super Mario 64. Japan was very heavily not into that, to the point where they modded similar games with a fully functioning 3D camera (Spyro the Dragon says hi!) to make the games feel less 'motion blurry'. On top of that, Final Fantasy isn't as popular over in Japan as Dragon Quest is - do you know how much people in Japan love Dragon Quest more than Final Fantasy?

Also, show me where everyone in Sonic's world worships the little guy in SoJ's writing, instead of stating it out. Because IIRC, Tails got upset when Sonic ignored his geek out on the Egg Carrier transforming in SA1, and Amy got upset at being left behind by Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in SA2. Those aren't moments of Sonic being worshiped.

Also SA1, SA2, Battle, Sonic 06 (as cruddy as it was), Riders, Zero Gravity, Rush, Rush Adventure, Unleashed, Colours, Lost World, Frontiers, and Forces laugh at your claim that Sonic is 'a Gary stu' and shit on your out of touch, game-hating opinion.