Activision has recently announced the Skylanders SuperChargers Dark Edition packs at Comic-Con San Diego; this year special attention is paid to both the Wii and Wii U Dark Editions.
While the other consoles' Dark Editions offer additional characters and vehicles — including exclusive Dark Super Shot Stealth Elf, Dark Sea Shadow — the Wii U Dark Edition comes with Dark Turbo Charge Donkey Kong and Dark Barrel Blaster. Also on the Wii we see another variation with Dark Hammer Slam Bowser and Dark Clown Cruiser.
While avid fans and collectors will be driven by these exclusive new versions of characters for Skylanders SuperChargers, for families it's more about whether the new packs offer good value.
Comparing what you get will be key. The standard starter pack for the Wii U offers Turbo Charged Donkey Kong, Barrel Blaster and Super Shot Stealth Elf for £54.99. The Dark Edition pack is £84.99, expands the line-up to include not only the Dark versions of characters and vehicles but adds an additional Dark Spitfire and Dark Hot Streak combo along with the mysterious Kaos Trophy.
It's interesting here that Super Shot Stealth Elf has been switched out of the Wii U bundle to ensure there are two pairs of vehicle-characters. This is the first consideration though. Stealth Elf is a popular character, having Spitfire instead may be less popular with kids.
On pure value, getting an extra vehicle and trophy for the additional £30 doesn't seem great. Of course you get the Kaos Trophy as well that is likely to unlock more in game content, but in terms of characters separate purchases will be more frugal.
For those buying the Dark Edition packs it is therefore important that considerable value is placed on having the Dark edition of the characters. This not only makes them look different in the game but also offers bragging rights to friends at school. No doubt the Dark characters are the ones kids will want because they will be more rare.
Over on the Wii, the normal Starter Pack offers Hammer Slam Bowser, Clown Cruiser, Super Shot Stealth Elf for £54.99. The Dark Edition seems better value at £69.99. It offers Dark Hammer Slam Bowser, Dark Clown Cruiser, Dark Spitfire, Dark Hot Streak and the Kaos Trophy.
Of all the packs the Wii Dark edition gives back the most to consumers who invest. For just an extra £15 you are getting the additional Hot Streak and Kaos Trophy as opposed to the additional £30 on the Wii U.
Last year the Wii game came with a free download version of the Wii U version. If this offer extends to SuperChargers as a means to offer an upgrade route from the "Racing" version of the game, it could be the one to go for.
Least happy with all this are Nintendo amiibo completionists who would need to buy four starter packs to get all the amiibo character variants. More likely they will head to eBay to find the characters second hand, still this is a high price to pay to keep your amiibo collection complete.
Back in the world with "normal" Skylanders players, the Dark Edition walks the line well between incentive and cost. Of course the packs cost considerably more, but at the same time there looks to be enough additional content to warrant the cost.
With the Dark Edition news out the way here's hoping we'll see more details on the Wii and 3DS Racing version of the game. This sounds like it will be a Mario Kart style racer, but that is yet to be confirmed.
Comments 17
cool
I'm happy to see Nintendo go after this kind of third-party partnership. It's a pity that the family-friendly games companies like Activision or Ubisoft release these days don't really interest me, and as such I'm not likely to take advantage of such partnerships in the near future (since these games are the most likely candidates to get extras on Nintendo platforms).
Nintendo has officially gone full lipstick for men with these amiibo things.
Please, refrain from swearing.-Morpheel
Is there really taht much demand for the Wii version of this? Maybe Skylanders could actually be a thing that gets people upgrading from Wii to Wii U...
It's a Dark day alright... for my wallet.
"Least happy with all this are Nintendo amiibo completionists who would need to buy four starter packs to get all the amiibo character variants. More likely they will head to eBay to find the characters second hand, still this is a high price to pay to keep your amiibo collection complete."
That's for you @JaxonH
@rjejr I ain't paying $100 + $75 for both Dark Bowser and DK, then another $75 + $65 for the normal ones.
Even I have a line I won't cross.
With that said, I did pre order dark editions for the time being until I can determine how rare they'll be. 99% chance I'll cancel but my motto is "order now think later".
Considering they're loose without packaging, I'll probably just cop em on a trade or eBay if I must
@JaxonH - Normally I would tell you to wait for a BF sale, but last year that never happened w/ the "Dark" editions.
I think we need to make a spreadsheet. Really. I don't mind haivng to buy both Wii and Wii U versions, but I don't like getting the other car adn guy twice. They REALLY should have put th esub in the dark Wii U version - why th eheck do I need 2 cars?!?! At least Wii version has a plane adn car.
And why am I posting on here nobody on NL cares about these games.
Actually I'm not a big fan of the dark Ntinedo figures, too Road Warriors. Great wrestlers, bad amiibo.
I'll try to get the amiibo figures if they're sold separately; I have the final pieces of my complete amiibo collection on the way now. But I'll pass if they're only sold with the game. I can't afford for my kids to be taking my amiibo dollars to use on Skylanders figures.
They better release the standard version amiibos as single figure releases
I'm not buying two copies of each game
This game keeps looking better and better to me come on September , I really like the Dark Additions the DK is my favorite character so far and Vehicle wise it's the Bowser plane - Looks AWESOME..
I'm obsessed with amiibo, but I'm not crossing the line into skylanders territory. The amiibo are the only things I care about in these bundles, but I'm not paying those prices for amiibo. If the amiibo were sold separately, then I'd probably have bought them.
Nintendo also has a "dark edition" for the Pit amiibo
And they also have dark/evil/nega/shadow versions of other characters as well :Y Gotta love those dopplegangers!
Sooooo glad to have kicked the all-consuming, Amiibo habit.
Wait a DARK DK and Bowser Skylander... okay
@chardir The Wii version of the game is the exact same as the 3DS version.
However, the dark edition is Wii exclusive. So basically to get all 4 skylander amiibo you need:
-Wii U Dark Edition
-Wii U starter set
-Wii Dark Edition
-3DS starter set
My son would love this! If i had one
Tap here to load 17 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...