I want more variety in the design. I mean the actual design as well, not those dang SWAP Force zones, which look fun but only work with a few Skylanders, and in the grand scheme of things just look like mediocre minigames anyway, not real mindblowing additions. It doesn't have to be the gameplay genres like sidescrolling and jumping and all those gimmicks that they're throwing in now: SSA still felt more varied than Giants, which had additional features like Arenas and Quests, and new Skylanders.
I like how in SSA some of the levels were really short and small(Molekin Mine, Lair of Kaos), and then they had fairly large ones too(all the Undead Levels, Arkeyan Armory, all the Adventure Pack levels). I don't like how they're making every single level in the games really long now. It makes the game feel like a grind(and it turns even more repetitive than before). And don't get me started on those horrible, overly gimmicky levels... Secret Vault, Aerial Attack, Autogyro Adventure... Ugh...
Giants levels really weren't that much longer, anyway(I can't quite explain it... But just speedrun any of them and you will see how short they can be). They're trying to make the game harder, which is fair enough, but for people like me who have 100+ figures, it makes it tiring with each figure taking longer and having less to visit. Even Nightmare is a pushover, because the AI is pathetic. The harder difficulties just make you slow down, and in Skylanders, that ends up very boring. It just isn't fun when it takes forever and ever and ever to upgrade, level up and finish quests, times a hundred toys, and they're adding more and more and more in ludicrous amounts. Don't forget the boring block and lock puzzles they toss into every level. Giants just plays ridiculously, boringly slow. SA
DID have the same problems, but it had enough combat to make up for it.
And I've said this before, yes, I don't
need to buy every figure, and I might not for SWAP Force unless it truly wows me, but I do
want to have a complete collection, AND I should feel rewarded for having a larger collection instead of frustrated by fault of repetitive design. I don't even play that much. I usually play once, maybe twice or if I'm in the mood, three times a week for about two hours, and I'm starting to get sick of the franchise entirely.
The only thing that I'm actually glad they took out were the Heroic Challenges(in Swap Force... Because I've finished them with every single figure twice over but come on, repetititititition). The gameplay has undoubtedly evolved from SA and Giants, but I think the actual game design is getting worse. Even SA wasn't that great as a
game* for the price, because it had a very standard amount of levels and extremely simplistic combat, but I still enjoy it and find it more fresh than Giants and I've played it for a whole year longer. If the new Skylanders were compatible with it, I probably wouldn't bother buying another future Skylanders game until I got as sick of SA as I have Giants, because I'm just not having enough fun with them to make the frustration worthwhile. The new games are definetly more refined, but also less charming.
In conclusion
thiswasabadrant, they tossed more figures at us, and gave us less to explore, which sucks. I hope that SWAP Force is better, but I have a huge nagging doubt.
*
To expand on this, I do realise the game is supposed to be only "half the fun", but I don't find the figures to be painted or made that well anyway. I enjoy the Skylanders game for the game. Everyone enjoys what they enjoy for different reasons(there's someone who liked Skylanders just because of Glumshanks! 
). The figures are just a cool bonus to me, and they've already given that gimmick enough exposition anyway, with all the ridiculous amounts of them.
