As much as we love Disney and a lot of the things they do like Wreck-It Ralph, even we notice that they don’t always come up with all their own concepts. Usually it is something that has been successful in the past and they put a Disney twist on it to turn it into an even bigger success. Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and tons more are all examples of this. So, it’s no surprise that Disney and Avalanche Software would be following the success of the toys to video game combo of Skylanders with the announcement of Disney Infinity.

Using a special hardware base accessory, players will be able to unlock new in game content and characters for Disney Infinity. Sounds familiar right? Disney Infinity will be following a model similar to that of Activision’s Skylanders franchise. Players will be able to take purchased toys and put them on a base that will read the figure and unlock characters and items in the game.

In the trailer below, you’ll see characters from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Monsters University, Cars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and more that will most likely be on the list of playable characters and toys coming out for Disney Infinity.

Epic franchises have been doing crossovers for years. It was only a matter of time before the team behind The Lord of the Rings movie franchise took notice of the success of other film blockbusters like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Indiana Jones and how well they all did when they met the LEGO world. Not only did the toys sell, but their video games were all certified hits. LEGO The Lord of the Rings promised to again do something never before done in a LEGO crossover.

The Long

Unlike LEGO Batman and its sequel which were original stories, LEGO The Lord of the Rings took the path of Star Wars and put the entire film trilogy and its most epic encounters into LEGO form. Unlike Star Wars though, LEGO The Lord of the Rings included actual voiceover taken directly from the film. That means the most iconic scenes, though given LEGO twists and humor in many cases, have the authentic audio from the movies. Hearing LEGO Gandalf utter, “You shall not pass” to the Balrog is unexpectedly still incredibly powerful even though, for all intensive purposes, it’s a toy saying it.

If you have a young male gamer in your family anywhere between the ages of 6 to 36, you have most likely heard of Skylanders. What seems like a simple adventure game takes on the addictive nature of Pokemon style in-game collection alongside real life figurines (a staple of any geek lifestyle). Skylanders Giants comes as the second iteration of what will likely become a yearly franchise for at least the foreseeable future from Activision and developer Toys for Bob that adds some new gameplay dynamics and, more importantly, a slew of new figures for gamers to collect.

The Long

Skylanders Giants kicks things off following the events of the original Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. There is a little bit of meta going on with the story as the antagonist Kaos finds himself in our real world and sees the Skylanders trapped in toy form. After transporting himself back to Skylands, Kaos finds out about a mystical artifact that will allow him to control a robotic army and take over Skylands.

Meanwhile, the player finds out that the ancient Giants, who were the first Skylanders, have been found and they can be awakened to stop Kaos and the robotic army. Yes, it does sound like a Saturday morning cartoon but that is a part of the charm of Skylanders Giants.

Just as the story has a whimsical youthful feel to it, so does the character design. All of the Skylanders from the original game return along with eight new Skylanders and eight Giants. The designs stay in line with the different elements of the game like Life (trees), Death (skeletons), Tech (mechanical) and others while keeping the designs of the new characters original as well. The Giants are unique both in their size on-screen and in their design as well. They have a larger than life feel with the way they interact with other characters and objects on-screen.

The madness has begun. On Sunday, Skylanders Giants was released in game and toy stores around the country. Parents waited outside on the brisk fall morning to be the first in line to get their hands on the new Skylanders Giants game as well as the horde of new figures released. After the shortages of various figures with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure it is no surprise that parents and collector’s alike flocked to stores so not to miss out on the latest line of Skylanders Giants.

Aside from the game itself which was launched with either just the Tree Rex Giant figure for owners of the original game or the Portal of Power, Tree Rex Giant, the new Jet Vac and the series 2 Cynder for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo 3DS, there was a horde of figures released with waves 1 and 2. Not counting Tree Rex, four of the eight new Giants figures have been released. There have also been the releases of series 2 Skylanders (remakes of the original Skylanders), Lightcore Skylanders (classic Skylanders remodeled with pieces that light up when put on the Portal of Power) and of course the new Skylanders made for Skylanders Giants as well. They have also released the first Battle pack three pack which includes Chop Chop 2, Shroom Boom and the Dragonfire Cannon which unlocks a new Combat Arena.

Not since Pokemon has a “gotta get ’em all” mentality hit gaming like it has with Skylanders. Shipments would hit stores and be gone within a few short days. And when someone had finally gotten all the new characters for themselves or their kid, the next wave would hit. And come October, we get to do it all over again.

When Skylanders Giants was announced, details were still a little unclear as to how the classic Skylanders would fit into this new game world. Even more questions arose when the new Skylanders Starter Pack was revealed. Would players of the original need to purchase another Portal of Power and a repeat Cinder Skylander to get to play Skylanders Giants? With this latest features trailer (seen after the jump) we get all the important facts.

First off, the Starter Pack will be available for the Wii, Wii U, XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS and will retail for $79.99. It will include Skylanders Giants, the Portal of Power, one Giant, one New Skylander and one Series 2 Skylander.

Because we know just how important Skylanders are to both geeks and the parents of young aspiring geeks, we’ve got the reveal trailer for the latest Giant coming to Skylanders Giants and he goes by the name Crusher. Now as much as you’d expect a wrestler looking behemoth, Crusher actually more closely resembles a stone golem with a massive hammer.

Though we haven’t gotten the chance to get hands on with any of these Giants yet, we are wondering just how they will play in comparison to their smaller Skylander counterparts. Aside from the special moves like moving heavy objects and pulling islands closer together with their chains, it looks like the Giants dole out massive damage to regular sized foes based on the trailer

Take a peek below at Crusher in action after the jump.

After being announced by Activision as the top grossing toy line of last year, people are already lining up in anticipation of the release of Skylanders’ next endeavor, Skylanders Giants. To help satiate this group of kids, parents and gamers alike are the latest character reveals from Activision from Gamescom.

Gamescom brings two New Skylanders to the mix. While we have only seen three of the eight Giants, there are still a host of the smaller Skylanders which will be making a debut in Skylanders Giants. Chill is a new Water Skylander with a doublesided spear, the ability to toss ice bricks and even throw a narwhal at her opponents. The slingshot equipped Shroomboom is a Life Skylander that can launch himself or poisonous mushrooms at opponents or set up a barrier of the same mushrooms around himself to detonate.

Check out the full profiles of both new Skylanders and the latest Gamescom screen shots after the break and stay tuned to the Flickcast for more on Skylanders Giants before its Fall 2012 release.

If you are on The Flickcast, you already know the story. A band of mismatched heroes takes an impossible journey to escort the smallest of men to the most dangerous of locales all to destroy a ring that could destroy them all. How do you improve on that ageless tale? Why, add LEGOs of course.

At Gamescom, WB Games revealed the latest trailer for LEGO The Lord of the Rings. Following in the tradition of LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Indiana Jones, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will follow the events of the movies while adding in the quirky LEGO humor. In the tradition of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, the game will also feature voice acting.

New to the LEGO brand though is having actual sound bites from the movie used in the game. While it hasn’t be revealed whether or not any new audio has been recorded for the game, it will be interesting to see how much Traveler’s Tales has fun with some of the most iconic scenes while using the current audio that so many of us have memorized at this point. The trailer below already gives a hint both at some of the epic scenes brought to life using LEGO as well as some of the lighthearted fun that the developers have had playing with some of the films’ memorable scenes.

Check out the full trailer after the break and keep it here for more on LEGO The Lord of the Rings set to come out this fall for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

With Skylanders Giants fast approaching in time for the holiday season, it is time for the team at Vicarious Visions to start letting us get a peek at some new Skylanders. After the E3 trailer though, things have been a little on the quiet side. Now, with just a few months before the expected October release date, we get the first character trailer of the new lightcore powered giant Skylander, Swarm.

SWARM

Bring the Sting!

Element: AIR

Character Type: Giant

At Comic Con, The Flickcast team got to finally get our hands on the Wii U and Nintendo’s minigame packed NintendoLand. Like we talked about in our E3 coverage, NintendoLand will feature a collection of mini games inspired by Nintendo franchises, past and present. In total, NintendoLand will contain 12 mini games with half of them already announced and five were playable for us in the Nintendo lounge at SDCC.

First we got to try out Animal Crossing: Sweet Day. Inspired by the stuffed animal-like art design of Animal Crossing, this mini game puts three players on a map where they must collect candies that are placed in various locations, sometimes requiring multiple players to stand on a location together to release the candies. The more candies the players collect, the fatter their heads get and the slower they move. At the same time, they are being pursued by a fourth player who is controlling two guards using the Wii U controller, independently controlling each guard with the different analog sticks and using the controller’s screen.

Communication is key between the players in their hunt for the candy as they need to warn each other about oncoming threats and gather at certain locations to unleash the larger stashes of candy. The player using the Wii U controller gets to really have the most fun though as they get to chase and troll the other players by using pincher style attacks to corner them.

The name itself is somewhat deceptive. LEGO Batman combined with the DC Super Heroes. Is it another entrant into the LEGO Batman franchise or the start of a new series focusing on more of the greater DC universe? And with trailers featuring members of the Justice League, why didn’t they go with LEGO Justice League or at least LEGO Batman 2: Justice League? LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes gives a lot of what is expected as well as some interesting gameplay and story design choices as well.

Gameplay:

At its core, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is a puzzle solving game with light combat elements. Players must figure out how to traverse from point A to point B in a room using the special techniques and powers of the game’s heroes. Both Batman and Robin have multiple suits, each with different power sets, to aid in this and are aided by Superman’s unique abilities later on. Superman can’t walk through electric fields, but Batman has a suit that can. Robin can’t melt gold beams but Superman can shoot his heat vision to accomplish the task. And for some reason, Robin has both a hazard suit to clean up toxic waste and a snow suit which lets him freeze stuff.

Interspersed between puzzles is light combat. Enemies can often be taken out in a single hit and multiple targets can go down quickly with a quick shot from the batarang. Combat is also one of the fundamentals that hurts the gameplay. During the levels where players can be both Superman and Batman or in a later level where players can be Wonder Woman, both characters are essentially invincible. There is no threat as they have steel health hearts and cannot take damage. And because both can fly as well, there is no fear of them falling during platforming sections. The second players realize this, the excitement of the combat sections is lost.

It’s an argument that has plagued gaming since the first time a player was able to pull out a weapon and attack someone else. No one ever worried about Mario jumping on the heads of turtles or Donkey Kong kidnapping a woman and defending himself with barrels. But by the time characters began looking like real people and players had the ability to whip out a gun and shoot Nazis in Wolfenstein or possessed marines in Doom, violence in video games has be criticized by those outside the industry. Now, the argument against it comes from within by an incredibly respected member of the community.

Warren Spector was recently quoted saying, “The ultraviolence has to stop.” This doesn’t come as a huge surprise that he would be an opponent of violence in gaming as Spector left Eidos in the mid-2000’s because of the level of violence he saw in certain games being created by his studio.

Spector continued, “We have to stop loving it…I just don’t believe in the effects argument at all, but I do believe that we are fetishizing violence, and now in some cases actually combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality. I just think it’s in bad taste. Ultimately, I think it will cause us trouble.”