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Skylanders: Swap Force - Jolly Bumble Blast
Score: 95%
Developer: Activision
Device Type: Accessory
Compatible With:


Stats:

Jolly Bumble Blast
Element:Life
Health:320
Speed:35
Armor:24
Critical Hit:4
Elemental Power:25

Attacks:

Skylanders: Swap Force - Jolly Bumble Blast’s starting abilities are his Beezooka and his Honey Glob, and unlike most character attacks, these two actually end up working together quite elegantly. The Beezooka attack shoots honey bees at enemies - simple enough, right? Just wait. The Honey Glob attack lobs a ball of honey at enemies. I believe this does do some damage, but the real benefit is that your bees from the Beezooka now target the honey-painted enemies. Imagine, if you will, an enemy that is prone to charges. Paint your target and run away while shooting bees any which way you want - they will curve and fly to your opponent and deal damage. It’s very effective.

The initial upgrades are two levels of increased damage and insure that your honey bees will always go towards the painted target. You also unlock a third attack which has Jolly Bumble Blast throw out a beehive that, when it explodes, splatters several nearby enemies with honey.

Jolly Bumble Blast’s upgrade paths have you choose between increasing the effectiveness of the bees and making the honey do some damage on its own right. The bee-upgrades start by letting you charge the attack and launching three bees at the same time, then upgrades the Beezooka itself to shoot even more bees and finally changes the charge attack so that you release a giant queen bee that knocks enemies into the air when she hits them.

The honey upgrades don’t change the fact that your homing honey bees will attack whatever is coated in the sticky goo, but it lets you charge up the honey attack and send bees out with the glob of honey at the same time. The second upgrade along this path increases the damage and slows the enemies that are hit, while the third ups Jolly Bumble Blast’s armor and lets him drip out honey from his skin to coat up-close enemies.


Features:
  • Compatible with:
    • Skylanders: Swap Force
  • Series 1
  • Holiday Special Edition
  • Includes Jolly Hat - +12 speed, +15 armor, +40 maximum health

Comments:

Besides getting a Christmas makeover and a slightly different bio, Skylanders: Swap Force - Jolly Bumble Blast also comes with a hat that fits the holiday season. The Jolly Hat gives the wearer some pretty impressive stat boosts. Not only does the character get a +12 to speed and +15 to armor, but his/her max health also jumps up by 40.

Bumble Blast in general is a good, well-rounded Life-type character that will be a good benefit to anyone's collection, but the problem might be which version of him to pick up. The normal Bumble Blast currently only comes with the Fiery Forge Battle Pack and is packaged with Knockout Terrafin. While not out at the time of this writing, there is also a Lightcore version of Bumble Blast slated to hit stores soon. So, if you are only going to get one version of this character, which will it be? Personally, if you don’t care about the Fiery Forge battle arena and magic item, then I would look for this particular version of the character. Not only is it a limited holiday edition that is bound to be hard to find eventually, but the inclusion of the Jolly Hat makes him a character that can lend a helpful boost to any of your other characters.

Of course, if you have the compulsion to get all variants, then you will need to add this version to your collection. Just be careful when getting the Fiery Forge so you don’t end up with a duplicate Knockout Terrafin since he is also available on his own.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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