E3 2016: Our Imaginations Run Wild In ‘Skylanders Imaginators’

I like to imagine at some point, after creating hundreds of figures and characters, that the developers of Skylanders Imaginators came up with this year’s core mechanic because they were completely out of ideas when it came to new toys for Portal Masters to take control of. And honestly, with so much content released since the original game took off in 2011, who could blame them? But with the introduction of custom Skylanders, the game has opened up an opportunity to allow its fans both young and young at heart to let their imaginations take charge and help them create the perfect character. But how will this all work? We headed over to Activision’s theater room during E3 2016 and learned all we could about the Toys To Life pioneer’s next release.

Kaos is up to no good once again, deciding that it might be best to imitate the Portal Masters who have thwarted him so many times before. Taking control of a new set of evil Skylanders, these “Doomlanders” as they’re called, the previous roster might not be enough to stop them. That’s where the Portal Masters will take control and begin to create new characters that will take the fight to Kaos, but they’ll need some new toys if they want to have access to the full range of possibilities.

Held in Creation Crystals, one version of the toy will be released for every element, (that’s 10 for those keeping count). Once placed on the Portal of Power, the crystal will take us into a character creation screen, allowing us to customize just about every aspect of the character that we can imagine. From their name, height, width, face, hair, color, accessories and fighting style, Imaginators will even let you create their own catchphrase for them to triumphantly call out when summoned. If you want your Skylander to have a tail, you can do it. If you want them to have a fart aura that follows them everywhere they go for some reason, you can do that too. And when you finally have that perfect Imaginator, make sure to take a selfie and hang it in your hub world for everyone to see! But just because your character is created doesn’t mean that that’s where your input stops.

Throughout the adventure, full sets of gear can be discovered, which will join hats as clothing that will affect your character’s stats. By finding hidden treasure chests, completing mini games, (including one based off of the radio from Trap Team, and the return of Sky Stones), and defeating enemies, you’ll be able to discover a wide range of new options. Some of these include the gear that we mentioned, new voices, auras, and pretty much everything that was featured on the customization screen. Your Imaginator will always be a work in progress, letting you constantly tweak it as you discover more options.

This guy is just one of many possible creations.

Then again, your character can have all the cool outfits in the world, but it means nothing if they don’t know how to fight. That’s where the new Skylander Senseis come into play. Your Imaginator has ten Battle Classes to choose from, determining how they will do battle against Kaos’ forces. After choosing between being a Brawler, Bowslinger or Sorcerer to name a few classes, we’ll be able to give our creations unique fighting abilities across four classifications, (weapon, elemental, secret and Soul Gem types specifically). From there, selecting a Sensei that’s proficient in that particular fighting style will lead to your Imaginator unlocking new weapon abilities to use for the matching class. From familiar faces like the reformed Wolfgang to newcomers, Ember and In order to get you to buy more than one of each type, the more Senseis you have, the higher your Imaginator level cap becomes. In other words, they won’t be able to get all that strong without a team of masters to guide them. Aside from mentoring your creations, each Sensei knows their own abilities that promise to be the strongest that the series has seen thus far. From what we know so far, it’s looking like this new set of characters will be the toys to get for the game this year.

If you’re worried about what role your old toys will play, every character will once again be playable, with some of the tracks from Superchargers returning for a racing mode to use your vehicles in. Traps will give the same items for inserting them into the game that they did in last year’s game, while classic characters will also pull double duty as Storytellers, giving your cast new missions to complete. One thing about the series is that it has yet to leave any of our past investments in the dust, so it’s great to see that this trend is continuing.

With so many new features coming to Skylanders Imaginators, it’s shaping up to be one of the standout entries as we head into the game’s sixth year. Skylanders Superchargers blew us away, leaving us feeling like it was the best game the series had produced, so this year’s version will have some big shoes to fill. But with what we’ve seen so far, (like Crash Bandicoot making an appearance as a Brawler Sensei), on top of what we haven’t thanks to our possible characters being dictated by the limits of our own imaginations, we’re left with seemingly countless possibilities that might live up to the challenge.

Skylanders Imaginators will release for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U on October 16.