PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
Unlike the previous games, the game's Starter Pack is only available physically.
What's always good is the forwards compatibility of the figurines and portals, so if the included one breaks, you can always use the older ones and keep on playing.
Imaginators comes with three included figurines, all of which ties into the new additions of the game.
The first and foremost is the Fire Crystal, which you can create your very own Skylander. A neat thing is that the crystal lights up when placed on the portal and will pulsate.
You get two Sensei characters too, the first is Golden Queen.
The figurines are large and nicely detailed as well as lavishly painted.
The second Sensei figurine is Master King Pen.
Neither of the Sensei figurines have any special effects.
The Portal of Power is really slim and thin, but there is no slot for Traps.
It remains corded so you'll need a spare USB slot when playing the game.
There's a poster containing all the new figurines you can get in the line, which doesn't actually amount to much, reflective of the decline of popularity in toys-to-life when it was released.
Rounding out the package is a sheet of stickers. As per usual, the whole package presents a lot of value since you get a full game along with it.
THE GAME:
Skylanders: Imaginators is the sixth and currently final (for consoles at least) game in the series. It was released for pretty much all the consoles at the time including the PlayStation 3. The gimmick for this installment are the Imaginators. It is pretty much a really versatile character creation for your Skylander, you decide on the design and can customize to your heart’s content. There are a wide variety of options. As with a lot of character creators, you can spend a lot of time fine-tuning your creation, right down to their eyes, head, armor and fighting styles. Perhaps most surprising is that your Imaginator can pick from a bunch of fighting styles and within each style, you can decide on which attacks it’ll have too.
The other major new addition is Sensei characters. You get two of these as part of the Starter Pack and will need to buy more if you want their benefits. These characters are more powerful and most importantly, are able to increase the level cap of your Imaginator (who has a cap of 15, but each Sensei you have in your game will increase it by one). As per usual, you can use older Skylanders in the game; however, the new ones are a lot more powerful. There aren't many reasons why you would want to use older figures since the Starter Pack provides more than enough variety in terms of combat variations. Getting through the story, you’ll be able to fully upgrade and max out approximately 3-4 characters.
Skylanders is an action platformer. Your character can jump and fight their way across the levels. By beating enemies they’ll provide experience orbs to level up your character. Gaining levels will increase your stats and smashing environmental objects will provide you with money to buy additional abilities and combat moves. Each character has two normal attacks, with a third purchasable attack. Playing through specific Sensei levels will unlock a special ultimate move once a bar has been charged.
While combat provides the majority of the gameplay, there are the occasional easy jumping sections. There are simple puzzles which involve pushing blocks around, minigames and mazes. The end result is an enjoyable game that’s perfect for relaxing. One thing to note is that the game doesn’t add anything new to the series gameplay-wise. On easier difficulties, it can become a button masher and your characters are severely overpowered. The graphics are decent and the game’s cartoony aesthetics lends well to its tone. The camera angles are fixed though but they are used to hide secrets and never make it hard to see where you have to go or what you have to do.
As you play through the game, there are heaps of collectibles. The major one is chests, or lootboxes since that is what they basically are. Opening these chests will give you random items of equipment or body parts used for customizing your Imaginator. You can purchase more for real money since the items you get are broken into four tiers of rarity. However, you get heaps of chests through normal gameplay already so you never feel pressured to buy more. You’ll never be able to get a complete collection with grinding a ton though since there are hundreds upon hundreds of items available.
The story itself is simple although the humor more than makes up for it. Kaos has returned as expected. He has gained the ability to use Mind Magic, which is basically creation magic. He uses this ability to create Doomlanders in order to conquer Skylands. The story has its silly moments which fit into the theme and tone that the game is aiming for. Kaos will summon more and more minions, while your Skylanders will continue to thwart his plans. The return of characters from the earlier installments in significant roles in the story makes you feel nostalgic and much more invested.
There are plenty of situations where the game shines in its quirky humor. It likes to poke fun at itself and its usage of typical plot elements / plot points. There are heaps of puns and all of this combines into a fantastic time which more than makes up for some of the boring cutscenes. The pacing is generally pretty good although there is filler material towards the end of the game. You have to collect eight items in order to proceed and ends up just repeating a few short levels.
There are a good number of story levels to play and they are all large. The hub world itself is constantly expanding which exceeds your expectations. While it is easy to get lost in the hub world since it tends to have isolated areas, there is a good objective marker system. The game itself is not too long since it takes around eight hours to complete plus a few more if you want to get 100% (not counting the collectibles). In addition to the main story, there are tons of optional levels and mini quests. Racing levels make a return from SuperChargers but they are optional and they can take place in a race track which requires going up and down in addition to the normal forward.
Overall, if you ignore the toys-to-life aspect, Skylanders: Imaginators is a solid action platformer that provides plenty of fun. Even with only the Starter Pack, there is plenty of content to enjoy and you don’t ever feel that they have locked too many things away for the physical toys.
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