For people who don’t understand the franchise in itself, Skylanders was a 2011 effort to integrate physical merchandise into a digital video game world. The first of these endeavors from Toys for Bob and Activision was to bring the iconic character Spyro the Dragon into this new universe, and he along with the other monsters went on a quest to restore balance to the Skylanders dimension. From then on, the Skylanders have made a series of yearly installments that included more stories and action-figures to collect. The sixth in this series is called Skylanders: Imaginators, with Crash Bandicoot and Neo Cortex making a return to video games for the first time in almost a decade. But the key feature of this new game is the ability to create your own Skylander characters, known as Imaginators.
The Skylanders Creator mobile app allows character customization and designing wherever you go. If creating a Digital character wasn’t compelling enough on it’s own for you, there’s several methods of making a physical representation of your personalized monster in real life. Want a full 3D figure of your custom character? You can do that. It’s 3D printed and fully colored, delivered on a decorative base and clear overhanging dome. The figure is fully usable in the Skylanders Imaginators console game. If you think that a statue is going too far, you can stick with a nice a simple trading card instead. Same deal as with the statue – you can use this card in the Skylanders Imaginators adventure. Finally, there’s Timed Imaginite chests that players can get at certain periods of the day, giving them access to new creation parts. Daily Sensei Chests give you the chance to deck out your unique Skylander with additional equipment.
“Since we first pioneered toys-to-life, fans have been clamoring for ways to express their love for Skylanders. Now with the Skylanders Creator app and the launch of Skylanders: Imaginators, the sky is the limit,” said co-founder and studio head at Toys For Bob, Paul Reiche. “This year, Skylanders is putting the power of creation in the hands of fans in ways never before imagined, and we can’t wait to see the millions of Imaginators that will be dreamed up by our Portal Masters around the world.”
Skylanders: Imaginators comes out on October 16th for North America (a few days prior to that everywhere else) for Wii U, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. The Creator app is Coming Soon to iOS and Android. For other game related curiosities, check out their website, Twitter, and Facebook.