Battle for Skylands

My daughter enjoyed this activity book when she was in her all Skylanders all the time phase.PROS:- My daughter absolutely loved Skylanders. She was glued to it. For at least 3 years, she played Skylanders for at least an hour every single day. Whenever a new iteration came out, she had to have it. The top of the long shelving unit that ran across the oversized desk in our library was wall-to-wall Skylanders. We always knew what to get her for every gift-giving occasion.CONS:- Then one day she stopped playing on a dime because of the violence involved, even though good always wins.- The major drawback to Skylanders is that this is the gift that keeps on giving - in reverse. You’re not just going to be buying a video game. You’re going to be buying many many figures and other trinkets. We’re easily into this for over a thousand dollars! Not bad for one video game. This was the first game to make this leap. After that, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions got in on the act. It’s brilliant from a corporate perspective. Not so much from a consumer perspective.THE KID SAYS: This game was absolutely revolutionary. The idea of being able to take real life toys and put them into video games was a phenomenal one indeed. Making them collectibles was especially good from a marketing standpoint, and giving every character unique backstories was a surefire way to guarantee that people would actually want to collect them all. Enjoyed playing.BOTTOM LINE: Excellent game good for many many hours of gameplay. Just know what you’re getting into.

First, anyone complaining about a kids activity book not being fun for very long may as well save themselves the frustration and stop buying kids activity books. They aren't meant to be purchased for their "replay value" and anything under 50 pages will probably not be good for long trips and vacations in any event. ALL activity books are like this, it is inherent to their design; that said, I haven't met a kid yet who did not glean some enjoyment out of an activity book that held a subject of their interest, even if it was only for total of 15 minutes.And yet... I have to agree with everyone else in that this book IS quite short. Maybe I accept this because my expectations were fairly low - I was buying this as a reward for a 5 year old whose favorite game is Skylanders. I did not expect educational value, long-term entertainment, and full well knew that this was, in essence, a marketing pamphlet. Still, we love our children, eh? So we occasionally buy them something they want, regardless of its value to US. And after all, Skylanders itself is a gigantic marketing machine - a rather short activity book is one of the least of their wallet-destroying offenses.Now to the book; the activities were engaging enough for young children, and they enjoyed looking at the artwork quite a bit. When read in the lofty tones of Eon the Portal Master, they really get a giggle out of it, though I recognize that this could be because I do a HORRENDOUS impression of Eon. Every time after reading this book, they wanted to play Skylanders, which may or may not be a check in the Pros column. And kids are funny that way; even after they've done an activity in the book, they are willing to do it again, always managing to squeeze out a little more fun than I thought possible. So even though my expectations were low, their expectations were met at the very least.I DO think that at $7 you aren't getting much for your money, and for that reason I give it a Fair rating of 3 stars. But if you can find it for cheaper, or have an extra few bucks on an Amazon gift card to blow, it's not a terrible investment.

My six year old son is able to use this book to check his status with his Skylanders as he moves through the different worlds. He didn't realize how many different things he could do with them (powers, level up) until he saw the pages in the book. It's been very helpful to him.

Talk about quick cash-ins, this extremely thin "book" (your average Sunday flyers are thicker) offers Skylanders fans a few activities akin to what you would find on a kid's restaurant placemat. The included stickers only feature a few of the Skylanders on the Spyro's Adventure roster, and aren't drastically different from the ones included with the figures themselves. My fault for not waiting on other reviews prior to purchase and not questioning the 16 pages in the product description, but don't make the same mistake! Put the $7 towards a new figure.

Am I the coolest Grandma in the world? He loves this skylander stuff. Definitely a five star product and I get more hugs. I call that a winner.