Skylanders has been huge since its inception and it has had a lot of staying power because of its constant innovations in the toy-to-life market. With the recent announcement of Disney Infinity being cancelled and that line of toys discontinued, it was maybe a concern of whether other similar series like LEGO Dimensions or Skylanders would return. Fortunately, Activision today announced Skylanders Imaginators, which will allow players to fully customize their Skylander from head-to-toe, including their catchphrase, name and even musical theme.
You can watch the video above for an idea of how creative you can get, but there are other new additions to the series as well. There are now Skylanders Senseis who train Imaginators (your created Skylanders) to unlock special abilities. The Senseis are proficient in 10 different battle classes such as Knight and Sorcerer. There are also 31 of them, some of which are familiar villains turned good.
The starter pack for Skylanders Imaginators will retail at $74.99 and will have two Senseis, a creation crystal (what is required to create your Imaginator), a Portal, and the game. There will also be a Dark Edition starter pack that retails at $19.99. Those who are looking to just add to their already existing Skylanders collection can purchase Senseis for $14.99 and creation crystals for $9.99.
It’ll be interesting to see how the game is received now, as it is essentially giving a lot of the power to the players. Most of the charm is in the characters that are pre-made and their personalities, which the creation crystals will essentially nullify. Though there are the new Senseis, the creation crystals act as a Create-a-Character mode that looks robust and might be the new focus for Skylanders players. We’ll see what happens when the game releases October 16, 2016 for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Wii U.
Source: Activision Press Release, Polygon