‘Skylanders Imaginators’ gives kids a blank canvas to create outlandish characters

By Gabe Gurwin Published April 21, 2022

Disney Infinity might be coming to an end, but the toys-to-life game genre is still anything but dead. The franchise that started it all, Skylanders, is getting a new installment this fall, and it’s offering something that could reinvigorate fan interest in Spyro’s plastic adventures: the ability to create your own characters.

Amazon Prime members receive 20% off physical pre-order and newly released video games. Start your free trial today.

Recommended Videos

Skylanders Imaginators is Activision’s fulfillment of the “countless” requests the publisher has received for players to be able to create their own characters in the Skylanders universe.

No matter how in touch with our ‘inner kids’ we might think we are as adults, nothing comes close to the creativity that springs from the mind of an inspired kid,” says Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg in the official release. “We’ve turned this year’s game into the ultimate blank canvas for kids’ imaginations so they can create and play their own Skylanders.”

This blank canvas certainly allows for some … unique character possibilities. A short teaser for the game shows off a banana-headed creature holding a skewer of hot dogs, a man with snakes for hands and a brain for a head, and a skeleton creature that looks like it was pulled from MediEvil.

Skylanders Imaginators also introduces the “Senseis,” powerful characters that help players unlock weapons and new areas. Some of these characters are “fan-favorite villains” who have decided to switch sides, but one thing is for certain: They’re all badasses. The trailer shows them walking away from exploding crates of dynamite in slow motion, and they don’t even look.

We loved last year’s game, Skylanders SuperChargers, but Imaginators looks like exactly what the franchise needs to avoid fatigue. And if you still want to use your classic characters, all of them are supported.

Skylanders Imaginators launches this fall for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Wii U. The starter pack includes two new characters, as well as the “Creation Crystal,” which allows you to send your Frankenstein’s monsters into the game.

Pre-Order Skylanders Imaginators on Amazon:

Former Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Topics

Gaming

One of my favorite exploration games is coming to iPhone. Even an iPhone 11 can run it

No Man’s Sky might be the game that finally makes me take iPhone gaming seriously

no man's sky

There are games I play to finish, and there are games I play simply because I want to disappear somewhere else for a while, and No Man’s Sky comes in this second category. Despite its disastrous launch, Hello Games' continued support turned the game around, making it one of gaming's biggest comebacks.

Now, ten years of updates have turned Hello Games' space sandbox into one of my favorite games for pure exploration and depth. Soon, this enormous universe is going to live on something as mundane as the phone in your pocket. Hello Games is bringing No Man’s Sky to iPhone and iPad on October 28, and the hardware requirements are surprisingly forgiving. You'll need an iPhone 11 or newer, or a third-generation iPad Air or newer.

Gaming

A PS5 homebrew update gives old PS2 discs a reason to leave the shelf

The new disc feature requires a jailbroken console, and testing is still limited

Advertisement, Poster, Machine

Old PS2 discs can now launch games on a jailbroken PS5 through a new homebrew feature. Developer Sword has added disc autoplay to PS5SX2, a PS2 emulator that copies an inserted game to storage before running it on the newer console.

The feature arrived in version 2.01 as a beta. At release, disc autoplay had been tested on just one original-model PS5. There’s a working starting point here, but results across other setups remain uncertain.

Gaming

Google’s older Pixels may have just become far better retro gaming machines

Google Pixel 11 Pro Review Zenless Zone Zero

I've spent enough time trying to turn Android phones into game consoles to know that raw horsepower only gets you so far. On the Red Magic 11S Pro, I've tested console emulation alongside Android games and eventually pushed things much further by getting the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima running locally through GameHub.

While all of this was possible thanks to powerful Snapdragon hardware, there's another reason Qualcomm-equipped Android devices have traditionally been particularly attractive to emulator enthusiasts. Adreno, the GPU that powers these devices, have access to custom graphics drivers such as Turnip. So phones using ARM's Mali GPUs haven't had the same advantage. But now, ARMSX2 2.8.3 is finally changing that.