E3 2016: Skylanders Imaginators First Impressions
During E3 2016, Activision offered PopGeeks an early, behind-closed-doors demo preview for the next installment of the hit toys-to-life video game franchise, Skylanders Imaginators. Activision definitely earned some brownie points with fans with the announcement of the return of the beloved classic Sony PlayStation star, Crash Bandicoot, will return in this game as one of the new Sensei class character. Plus, Imaginators has some other new features that will be of interest to longtime fans of the franchise.
One of the most exciting aspects for Imaginators is that for the first time in the franchise’s history, Skylanders has a Create Your Own Skylander feature. The developers for the hands-off preview showcased this feature first hand. The Create a Skylander mechanic actually has quite a bit of depth. There’s quite a few combinations players will be able to play with in terms of Skylander power sets, abilities, catchphrases and even voice effects. So the players will be able to customize a catchphrase based on some stock terms. But in addition, the voice of the Skylander can be customized by adding various effects. Those effects can make the Skylander sound like a robot, a ghost, an underwater creature, etc. This looks like a fun way for kids to get creative by creating their own Skylander character. One way Activision could exploit this feature is perhaps a contest to make a figure based on some player-submitted character creations.
Now here is the rub with creating a Skylander. Players will create and store their new Skylander character using a toy called the Creation Crystal. It’s placed on the portal pad to help create and store the created Skylander. Only one Skylander can be stored per Creation Crystal, meaning players have to buy more Creation Crystals to create and store more characters. So that should be kept in mind if players or their kids have plans to create a bunch of characters because it will cost more money.
Of course one of the other great things about the game is the inclusion of gaming icon Crash Bandicoot. The demo preview did feature some new gameplay footage of Crash, featuring his own Crash figurine for the game. The Seneis have another new feature for this game, they have a Sky-Chi meter to unleash a Battle Class super move. In addition, the gameplay showed that some of the other characters from Skylanders Trap Team, such as Wolfgang, are back as Senseis. It appears that Wolfgang is reformed, and he’s now joined the Skylanders as a member of the Sensei class of characters. Including Crash Bandicoot, it looks like there at least 31 new Sensei characters and figures for Imaginators. Crash Bandicoot is a welcome addition to Skylanders, and he fits right into the franchise’s overall style and wackiness factor. His new design looks awesome. In addition, Skylanders Imaginators marks Crash’s first video game appearance in about six years, not counting the Crash Bandicoot cameo in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. What’s great is that Crash’s attacks all resemble things from the classic Crash games, including his spin attack and his attack where his body slams flat to the ground. The explosive crates from the classic Crash games are back too.
In terms of the story, it appears to be business as usual because Kaos is back at it. He’s now created his own army of Skylanders, or rather “Doomlanders” as he calls them. Crash gets in on the action after Aku Aku appears in the Skylands and declares a Synchronization Celebration when two worlds perfectly align, and the Wumpa Islands want to invite the Skylanders to the party. However, with Kaos on the move with his army of Doomlanders, Crash Bandicoot jumps through the portal to the Skylands to help with the fight against Kaos.
One benefit for the Skylanders franchise is the backwards compatibility for the figures, and Imaginators will be no exception. Existing portal toys and all the previous Skylander figures that have been released will be playable in the game. In addition, the Traps from Trap team will still be usable for a racing portion of the game, similar to Superchargers with a Trap-compatible portal. In other words, the game will support over 300 existing Skylanders toys for the new game. So the good news is if players spent a fortune building a Skylanders collection for a previous game, it doesn’t suddenly become obsolete with the new game.
In terms of graphics and design, the game looks nicely designed with some fun, imaginative linear platform stages. It doesn’t look like a lot has changed in terms of graphics and design from Superchargers, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Skylanders is really a good game franchise for kids and families to play together, and it works well in that respect.
Other than Sky-chi attacks and the Create-a-Skylander feature, it looks like there aren’t many changes to the overall gameplay. That said, the movement for the Skylanders still looks a bit too slow. It’d be nice if the characters had a sprint or running feature. It seems they can only move at one standard pace. The overall gameplay comes off as similar to previous games. The developers wouldn’t reveal if some of the alternate modes from previous games would be back here. Hopefully, the Kaos Mode from Trap Team. Kaos Mode was a fun horde mode that helped players rack up some extra wards and take on challenges of gradually additional difficulty.
Skylanders Imaginators is due out later this year on October 16 in North America and October 14 in Europe. The game will be available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii U. The starter pack for the game featuring the Crash toy will only be available exclusively for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 at launch. The good news? The Crash toy is playable across multiple platforms, so even gamers on other consoles will be able to use Crash Bandicoot. The developers also gave the impression that the Crash toy will be sold separately after the timed exclusivity period for the starter pack on the PlayStation console ends.