Disney Infinity is on its way out, and there’s no word on another Lego Dimensions yet, but Activision shows no signs of slowing the Skylanders brand. Just after the release of the mobile spinoff Skylanders Battlecast, the publisher has officially unveiled the sixth major entry in the series, and Skylanders Imaginators looks to offer one of the most intriguing premises yet for the series.
Rather than relying completely on preset characters unlocked via physical figurines, Imaginators will utilize a new series of toys called Creation Crystals, which will enable you to create a custom in-game Skylander character to play as. Early glimpses at the creation feature suite make it sound quite robust, with the ability to choose from different character classes, heads, limbs, bodies, and even voices.
Similar to the villain traps in 2014’s Skylanders Trap Team, Creation Crystals will come in different elements, presumably allowing for different character parts and abilities. Early impressions from Destructoid indicate that many additional parts will also be unlocked as randomized loot during gameplay.
As per series tradition, more conventional characters and corresponding figures will also be released, though they will now be known as Sensei and Villain characters. They will offer optional in-game perks like increasing characters’ level caps, unlocking bonus areas, and helping to train player-created characters, though how that process will work is currently unknown.
It also seems that existing characters may get some representation, as one of the first figurines appears to be the Golden Queen, one of Trap Team‘s primary antagonists. As always, existing Skylanders characters will still be fully playable, and in a welcome addition, so will the vehicles and racetracks from Superchargers, though to what degree is still unspecified.
Skylanders Imaginators is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U on October 16 in North America. For the first time, there will not be a 3DS or Wii version, nor an iOS port, as Activision has chosen to focus on Battlecast for that platform.
