Jumping. It’s something that seems so simple. Something that we complain about being too floaty or too restrictive. Jumping is the foundation of many key gaming franchises, and it was absent from Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Giants on Wii and Wii U. Now, Vicarious Visions, the company that brought jumping into the Skylands in the 3DS version of Spyro’s Adventure, is bringing jumping into the next Skylanders game, Skylanders Swap Force. It’s basically the only major gameplay change from Giants, but it’s a huge one that makes the colorful Cloudbreak Islands more fun to explore.

Moving around levels is made easier when you don’t have to worry about accidentally falling off a ledge and then walking all the way around to get back up to where you were. Now, you can just jump up. You can use it to cut corners and move quickly. It won’t change Swap Force into a 3D platformer, as the gameplay is still more Diablo than Mario, but it adds a new dynamic that makes the whole experience a little more exciting than a Giants expansion pack.

At a recent event, I got to play a smattering of levels from Swap Force, including four story missions and two bonus missions. The story missions are in line with what players have come to expect in Skylanders. Essentially, a Saturday morning cartoon plays out around you, complete with silly jokes and fun, well-acted characters. Patrick Warburton returns to voice Flynn, who is basically The Tick as a furry pilot. On the new engine, Swap Force looks wonderful, whether you’re in the snowy Winter Keep fighting off snowball-throwing gremlins or the western-themed Iron Jaw Gulch.

Each level still has a variety of secrets, most of which I didn’t find in my time with them. They’re nestled throughout the environment cleverly, and legitimately, there are secrets inside of secrets. However, most of these secrets are gated, and now there are even more ways for this secrets to be gated. In addition to needing specific elements, you need to have pairs of elements, Swap Force characters, and returning from Giants, Giant characters. The dual elemental gates can only be opened by two players controlling characters of the two elements, or a Swap Force character that is made up of the two elements. The Swap Force gates can only be accessed by a character of the right movement type. There are eight movement types in all, ranging from teleport to rockets. Don’t worry, though, you can still complete the story without seeing every portion of the world. You’ll just miss out on some of the cool secrets and after all, they need to make buying more toys worthwhile.

Some of the coolest portions of Swap Force on display were in the Bonus Missions, which are hidden in each level. These missions are sort of like the Heroic Challenges from earlier games, but with a little more personality. The first one was called Master Chef, and revolved around trying to stop the Master Chef from cooking up the Elder Fish. It’s a time trial that involved a mix of kill rooms, puzzles, and minor platforming. The kill rooms would usually be set off by pumpkins being launched at you, so you’d have to fight enemies while dodging splattering pumpkins. All the enemies are wearing chef’s hats and other food-themed items. It’s all kind of adorable and whimsical.

The second mission was Treble Theft, which revolved around fighting enemies to unlock musical instruments that awaken depressed musicians. It’s nothing fancy, as it is pretty much nothing more than a series of five kill rooms with a minor puzzles, but the wrapper is fun. It nails that nice, rewarding feeling when you get the item and then see the little dude perk up and jam on his trusted instrument, opening the next door.

The new characters are also promising, with Roller Brawl, an Undead inline skater, skates around throwing blades and charge attacks being my personal favorite from the demo. I also tried out Wash Buckler, Rattle Shake, and Blast Zone, and all of their swappable counterparts (for completionist’s sake: Wash Shake, Wash Zone, Rattle Buckler, Rattle Zone, Blast Buckler, and Blast Shake). My favorite part about the Swap Force gang is that they essentially have a movement attack as well. Wash Bucker’s octopus legs hit enemies in front of him. Rattle Shake’s snake bottom does a spin attack that shoots out a rattlesnake. It’s all very cool and fun.

Swap Force looks like it will keep up the same consistent quality of Spyro’s Adventure and Giants while adding enough new ideas to keep it fresh. Jumping changes up traversal in a good way, and the new levels are cinematic and bombastic in a delightful manner. We’ll know if Swap Force truly sticks the landing come October 13.