Innovation is the name of the game (pun intended) in the gaming industry today. From motion sensor controls to online communities, games are constantly changing and adapting to the needs of their audiences. Activision, which now owns the Spyro the Dragon franchise, will thrust itself to the forefront of gaming innovation this fall with the release of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures.
I had a chance to observe a demo of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures and see just how unique the experience surrounding the game is.
There are three unique aspects of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures.
First is that the game will combine your traditional console-based gaming with collectible figurines that, in essence, “come to life.”
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures will come with a “portal” and three figurines at launch. Each figurine, representative of one of the game’s “Champions,” will come to life in the game when placed on the portal. This will allow for gamers to seamlessly switch between different champions in order to accomplish different tasks in the game.
As you progress through the game’s levels and collect experience and loot, your characters will level up and be able to purchase upgrades, adding an RPG element to what, on the surface, appears to be a children’s platformer.
The second innovation, again surrounding the unique aspect of combining toys and console gaming, will be that each figurine has it’s own “brain.” What this means is that as you play as a certain character, your progress is saved (upgrades, loot, powers, collectibles etc.) onto the actual toy and your data will immediately be uploaded when you play with that character again, regardless of if you are on your own portal or at a friend’s house.
This leads me into the third and final industry-first that Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures will introduce, cross-platform gaming.
Because your toys will act as “memory cards” they will be compatible on PS3, XBOX 360 and the Wii, making Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures the first truly cross-platform game of any generation, past or present.
All of these innovations undoubtedly contribute to the goal the developers have and envision at Activision. The team behind Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures wants to create a game that kids ages 6 and up can enjoy for a prolonged period of time. They described to me the vigorous testing process that Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures has undergone while in development, citing that while most games aimed at their target demographic usually last between 6-8 hours, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures should take around 12-15 hours, and that’s before they introduce new characters to enhance replayability.
The testers also began to notice that the children developed relationships with their champions, and that the game didn’t end when they shut off the console. The team imagines that children will be taking their champions on adventures to the park, in the car and around the house. They called them the “Next-Gen Army Men.”
Activision is aiming to have 30 different champions, to be released over the life of the game, and there will be in-game incentives to collecting all of the champions for a certain element (Life, Water, Fire, Magic etc.). Ultimately, the team envisions kids bringing their champions over to friends’ houses to play together or to trade to experience Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures in an entirely different facet.
The appeal isn’t just for kid gamers however, as parents can find solace in the fact that they will not need to run out and drop $59.99 every few weeks for a new game for their children to rush through and beat. Instead, parents can purchase new champions for their children to play with for $7.99 each.
In addition to that, Activision announced there will be a web component to Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures, where gamers can create their own personal Skylander Realm and show off their in-game collectibles and champion’s upgrades. Ideally, they would like for this to serve as not only a way to show-off your gamers’ progress, but also for parents and grandparents to be able to log on and see which champions their kids have and know what to get them as gifts for birthdays and holidays (Sorry, no more bad Christmas sweaters!).
At first glance, with its vibrant and colorful environments and the roles the toys play, looks like a children’s game.
However, when you delve deeper you will see Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures combines elements from platforming and role-playing genres, and offers a robust single-player experience as well as cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes, making it potentially one of the deepest and most creative titles of 2011.
