Fiesta Review with Crypt Crusher
Fiesta is a new Undead element Skylander for Skylanders SuperChargers. Fiesta is another musically motivated Skylander, much like Cobra Cadabra, Echo, and to some extent Head Rush. They all use musical instruments or their musical voices to attack enemies. Fiesta was once the head of a popular mariachi band in the personal court of Count Moneybone. He and his bandmates would play music for the new arrivals that entered the Underworld. One day, those new arrivals were a bunch of Skylanders who had come to stop Moneybone from unleashing a robot army on all of Skylands. Fiesta realized he had been fooled by Moneybone into thinking that he was kind and generous. Fiesta and his bandmates quietly distracted the robot army allowing the Skylanders to infiltrate Moneybone’s mansion. The Skylanders did not realize that they were getting help from Fiesta, but Master Eon noticed and recruited Fiesta into the Skylanders.
Fiesta is a very interesting looking new Skylander. He’s clearly undead as he is obviously a skeleton. However, his skull is painted like a festive Mexican skeleton mask. He wears a large sombrero on his back and holds a giant horn which he uses as a gun. He wears a grey and red leisure suit complete with a massive skull belt buckle and cowboy boots with spurs. He definitely looks like he’s ready for a fiesta. He has an alternate Halloween version of his character called Frightful Fiesta. Frightful Fiesta has an orange skull with orange bones and a black leisure suit with a silver horn gun. This gives him a nice Halloween look and feel. I like the coloring of both figures a lot, and I was very excited that he was released with the first wave of characters for the game.
The main attack for Fiesta is called Trumpet Concord. By holding Attack 1 you can play continuous music from your trumpet gun that will damage any enemy the music hits. At first this works pretty well. It’s a constant stream of damage. Unfortunately, the stream isn’t very long, so you’ll need to stay fairly close to the enemies to use it. The damage dealt by the attack is pretty low even after Fiesta is fully upgraded. This can make killing larger, harder enemies more difficult. His second attack is called Amigos. By pressing the Attack 2 button, you can summon a friendly instrument-wielding Amigo. These are basically Fiesta’s mariachi band members and you can summon up to three at a time. 
You can purchase an upgrade to unlock the third attack called Laid Low. Pressing Attack 3 will allow you to sink into the ground which keeps you hidden and allows you to take reduced damage. The enemies can’t see you in this mode, so you can use it to get away. The Solo upgrade allows you to press the Attack 1 button to play a solo note. This note floats up and then will home in on a nearby enemy. By repeatedly pressing the button you can shoot multiple notes into the air at once. It’s a great attack to use while keeping Fiesta away from the main fight. With the Encore upgrade, if you play five of the Solo notes in a row, the Amigos on the battlefield will stay longer. Finally the Macho Amigos upgrade gives the summoned Amigos more damage. These Amigos are actually very powerful. They might be the strongest minions used by a Skylander that we’ve seen. They can take quite a bit of damage and if you are playing the Solo notes at the same time, they will last quite a while. Typically they surround enemies and deal melee attacks, but they will also play their own musical notes that will provide a ranged attack if they are not near an enemy. The downside to Fiesta is that he doesn’t really have a direct attack. The Trumpet gun can deal constant damage if you hold the Attack 1 button, but the damage is rather weak. Fiesta’s armor is equally as weak, so staying close enough to enemies to use this attack is not a good idea. That attack is best used for breaking open boxes. Fiesta should be used from afar letting the Amigos and homing musical notes do all the work.
When it comes time to choose an upgrade path, you’ll need to decide if you want to let the Amigos steal the show, or if you want to be the Super Star! If you like the Amigos then you will choose the What Amigos Are For Path. This path makes your Amigos more powerful. The Take It Away Amigos! upgrade will give the Amigos a damage boost every fifth solo note played. You probably will never notice this boost in damage, but once your Amigos are all summoned you might as well be playing the Solo notes so this will be useful. The Mucho Amigos upgrade does what you would expect, it gives you two more Amigos to summon for a total of five! Finally, the Soul Jam upgrade will give the Amigos more speed when Fiesta enters into Laid Low. I hardly go into Laid Low, so I’m not sure how useful this is. Most of the time when I have Amigos fighting I’m supporting the fight with Solo notes. I think this is probably the best path to choose because it supports a passive play style. Compared to the other path,it just seems more useful. However, if you’d rather be the focus then you want to choose the Super Star! Path. The Diva upgrade will put a spotlight around Fiesta after playing five Solo notes. While in the spotlight, Fiesta will gain increased money, experience and food. I never really noticed the extra experience or money, but there is definitely a spotlight, so I only assume it’s giving me more. Shot to the Heart will enhance the Solo notes to pierce through enemies. While again I notice that this happens, I’m not sure what the benefit is. It’s possible that the notes might hit a second enemy, but they quickly disappear into the ground after going through an enemy, so again, I’m not sure how useful this upgrade is. The last upgrade is called Big Finish. While in Laid Low, the Amigos will grow and explode after a short time. While this is a cool looking attack, that seems to do decent damage, I’d rather have the Amigos last longer and do more damage since it can take a few seconds to create new batch of Amigos. If you can’t get enough Amigos, then you’ll want to use the Soul Gem ability. The Family Fiesta upgrade will summon a constant stream of Amigos aimed in which ever direction you turn to. These Amigos will go almost all the way across the screen, and will damage anything that gets in the way. If you can get far enough away from the enemies to start the stream of Amigos this will be your best attack.
The mobile coffin known as the Crypt Crusher serves as the signature vehicle for Fiesta. It’s a fairly fast vehicle with pretty good top speed and acceleration and great handling. 
The attacks of the Crypt Crusher copy heavily from Fiesta’s best two attacks. The first attack is called Tune Up. This attack will fire musical notes at the enemies. They look small and innocent, but they will deliver serious damage. They also fly through the air like Fiesta’s notes. We found this attack very useful in the boss battle with Money Bone. The notes travel through the air and they will attack enemies in different perspectives. It’s a great counter to when Money Bone tries to hide in the different perspectives, because the notes will travel across the perspectives where other vehicles attacks will not. The other attack is called Amigo Amplitude. This is the attack to use when you just want to concentrate on driving. This attack shoots Amigos which will attach themselves to an enemy damaging them over time. The damage over time might be the same as the damage from one musical note. But this can be multiplied by the number of Amigos you can attach to the enemy. You barely need to aim and can spend most of the time focusing on driving and dodging enemies while still dealing damage. The Crypt Crusher is a quality vehicle that will serve you well.
After initially being excited about Fiesta I became less and less impressed as he leveled up. When the enemies grew in difficulty, Fiesta’s inability to attack them directly became a problem. You can fire notes into the air, and you can summon Amigo’s but you can’t choose who they attack. They might hit the enemy that is attacking you, or they might break the empty box nearby. You just don’t know. He’s also a little slow and weak. His lack of armor means that if you stay to close to the larger enemies you will take heavy damage while your notes do much less. I do like the fact that you don’t have to aim your notes and you can play them as you run from danger. You will just need to be smart about when to play them and when it’s better to just run. The Amigos are pretty cool too most of the time. They can last quite a while and deal significant damage over time while you are running and playing Solo notes. However, many of the larger boss enemies, can easily destroy the minions with their powerful attacks rendering them useless. Overall, you’ll find that you will spend most of the time concentrating on running away, finding an open space and just playing Solo notes and making sure you have all of the Amigos active as you can. In the end, he just isn’t that much fun. Such a cool looking character destroyed by some uninspiring gameplay. Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend Fiesta. Is he bad? No, he’s not terrible. But I fear he might be the worst Skylander of the SuperChargers collection. It just seems like most of the other characters are more powerful and more interesting even if they only have one good attack. The Crypt Crusher on the other hand is a very serviceable vehicle, and you can have some fun and win some races with it. If you don’t mind not having your character SuperCharged, then you can use the Crypt Crusher without Fiesta, but there are also better Land vehicles if you wanted to skip the combo all together.
SkylanderNutts gives Fiesta… 6.0 out of 10
SkylanderNutts gives The Crypt Crusher… 7.5 out of 10
Fiesta Review with Crypt Crusher (Video)
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