Spitfire Review with Hot Streak
Spitfire is a new Fire element Skylander for Skylanders SuperChargers. Spitfire comes in most versions of the SuperChargers starter pack. He is not included in the Nintendo versions as he was replaced by one of the Nintendo Amiibo Skylanders. However, Nintendo fans can purchase him separately. It seems like every year one of the Skylanders that comes with the Starter Pack turns out to be one of the best of the year. I think Spitfire continues that tradition. He has a few different styles of attack and each seems powerful and effective. He’s also extremely fast. In fact he was on his way to becoming the fastest drivers in the Super Skylands Racing Circuit when he was sent into a fiery crash by a goblin racer. Most thought his career was over but surprisingly, he returned and was ready to race again three weeks later. Unfortunately, that was right when Kaos unleashed the Sky Eater on Skylands. The racing season was stopped and Spitfire sought out Master Eon to form a new elite driving team – the Skylander SuperChargers.
Spitifre is a very cool looking Skylander. He’s looks like he’s part dragon and part blue flame. His body is made of a translucent blue flame only covered by some armor looking scales. He has metallic red wings that look a bit like exhaust pipes that must help contain his burning flame wings. Perhaps they help him control his amazing speed? If you look inside his flaming snake-like blue body, you’ll notice what looks like a metal scaled skeleton. For being so full of flame and fire, he is undeniably one cool character. He also has a Dark variant called Dark Spitfire which comes with the Dark Collector’s Edition of Skylanders SuperChargers. Unfortunately, I think the Dark variant looses some of the cool look of the character. First he’s only black and silver like all Dark variant Skylanders are. His black body is not translucent, so you can’t see the internal scaled skeleton inside the body. His silver scales are interesting as they make him more metallic looking than his normal character, but in the end I prefer the look of the normal Skylander.
Spitfire is one of the rare melee focused Skylanders this year. It seems like there are very few Skylanders this year that focus on hand to hand combat. 
Even the returning favorite Skylanders have ditched their typical melee attacks for more ranged options. Spitfire starts as a melee character but quickly develops other options as he gains upgrades. His first attack is called Butane Brawling and it involves rapidly pressing the Attack 1 button to perform flaming melee combos. If you are afraid of getting too close to the heavy damaging melee villains, don’t be, because the Flash Fire attack is an extremely fast dash attack that can get Spitfire out of any dire situation. In fact it rivals High Five‘s dash attack for one of the fastest dash attacks of all the Skylanders. A passive ranged attack will be unlocked when you purchase the Flamenado upgrade. This upgrade adds a third attack which will create a giant fire tornado. You’ll want to quickly upgrade that attack with the Flamenado Chasers upgrade. This useful upgrade will make the Flamenado home in on nearby enemies. The Flame Fury upgrade will let you hold the Attack 2 button down to charge the Flash Fire attack. When you let go Spitfire will dash automatically between enemies for a few seconds at light-speed. Finally, the last basic upgrade is called Intensified Fury. This will add a flaming spin attack at the end of a melee combo for some extra damage.
Once you play with him for a while with all of his basic upgrades you’ll be able to choose a specialized upgrade path. If you like the speed of the Flame Fury dash attack, then you want to choose the Speed Demon Path. The Mega Marathon upgrade will add a third level of charge to the dash attack. By holding the Attack 2 button even longer you can charge the attack until Spitfire will dash all the way around Skylands damaging all in his way. Basically this means that he dashes straight forward off the screen and then comes back in from the other side until he ends up where he started. This attack can be further improved with the Triathlete upgrade. By taping the Attack 2 button at the end of the Mega Marathon dash, you can instantly dash around the world again. You can do this two extra times for a total of three trips around Skylands. It’s extremely fast and deals a lot of damage. The only downside is that enemies will have to be in a line to do damage to more than just the first enemy you are aiming at. There is also a Nitro Boost upgrade which will make Spitfire move faster once he is fully charged and before you begin the dash of the Mega Marathon. This is a pretty useful upgrade that will allow you to quickly get into position for the best angle of attack. If you like to use the Flamenado attack then you’ll want to choose the Fusion Path. The Flamenado 2 upgrade will allow you to have two Flamenadoes out at any time. That’s twice the homing damage of a Flamenado which is pretty good. You can use this attack and then stay away from the enemies and let the Flamenadoes do all of the work. The other two upgrades may make the Fusion Path sound a little boring. The Fuel Injected Claws upgrade will give your melee attacks more damage while the Volcanic Armor will give Spitfire super tough, lava-like armor that will reduce damage taken. It’s not the most exciting path, but don’t underestimate the power that the two Flamenados bring. Finally, the Soul Gem ability is called The Flamenadoing, and while it looks cool, I’m unsure how useful it is. This upgrade creates a large explosion at the beginning of each Flamenado. While this is good in theory, I found myself creating Flamenados when I was clear of enemies, thereby sending the Flamenado towards an enemy from a safe distance. As such, no enemies are normally nearby which means the explosions don’t do any damage. Even when there were enemies near, it didn’t seem to do any more damage than a single Flamenado hit. Since a Flamenado lasts for a while and does damage over time, one hit’s worth of damage does not seem like very much for a soul gem attack. But it does look cool, and can hit multiple enemies.
The Hot Streak is the signature vehicle for Spitfire and also comes with the non-Nintendo starter editions of SuperChargers. There is even a Dark Hot Streak if you picked up the Collectors Edition of SuperChargers. Either way, it’s one of the best Land vehicles in the game.
It has great top speed and acceleration with some pretty good handling. The Fire Grill attack is the main attack and will shoot a powerful stream of fire to burn your enemies. It’s a constant attack so as long as you stay in range of the enemy and keep the cursor on it, you’ll be able to do damage. Once you max out the attack of Hot Streak, the damage will be substantial. Strangely, this attack does not mirror one of Spitfire’s attacks as Spitfire doesn’t have any kind of constant streaming attack. However, the second attack of the Hot Streak does. It’s called Nitro Blaze, and it’s basically the vehicle version of the Flash Fire dash attack. By pressing Attack 3 you will get a temporary boost of speed and form into a fireball which will deal massive damage to any enemy you pass through. You can also use this attack to get a little boost during the races which might give you that edge as you cross the finish line. The only real downside to the Hot Streak, is the fact that the armor is pretty weak. During the adventure this doesn’t really come into play much, but in the races it can make winning difficult. You will likely get spun out two or three times during a race. So while you may be able to deal some decent damage, you’ll also be taking some. With a little patience and luck, you will be able to persevere on the harder races.
The combination of the Hot Streak and Spitfire is a Land combination that is hard to beat. Spitfire’s attacks continue to get better with each upgrade. He can be very effective when going toe to toe with the large enemies or when trying to stay away and attacking from afar. His speed gives you the ability to switch between those strategies at any time further giving you the ability to control every battle. The Flash Fire dash attack can also keep Spitfire safe as he can not be damaged when in that attack. The same is true with the Nitro Blaze dash attack for Hot Streak. You’ll have a lot of success with Spitfire and the Hot Streak. For the most part they will make you feel like you are dominating. But every once in a while you’ll wish they could do just a little bit more. If you already have both of these then you know what I’m talking about. But if you are a Nintendo player and don’t have these, then they are well worth picking up. Spitfire is the leader of the SuperChargers and I think he belongs there.
SkylanderNutts gives Spitfire… 9.0 out of 10
SkylanderNutts gives The Hot Streak… 9.0 out of 10
Spitfire Review with Hot Streak (Video)
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