Skylanders Imaginators Reviews
Imaginators captures a magic that I’ve rarely felt since my late childhood, playing the aforementioned N64 platformers on a Winter’s afternoon. This is how you do games for younger people, this is how you do Toys to Life, this is how you do action platformers in general.
Skylanders Imaginations is built for the long haul with great replay value, which may be one more reason for the series to take a year off.
The increased role-playing elements add another interesting angle to an already accomplished franchise, but the cynical attempts to fleece parents’ wallets are hard to defend.
While the mechanics is pretty much the same as the previous Skylanders games, Imaginators lets you be far more creative. With better gameplay and more colorful graphics, and this is one of the best installments in the series so far.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
One of the best Skylanders games to date thanks to the deep character creation tool.
The sixth installment of Activision's Skylanders toys-to-life series just might be the best one yet.
Skylanders: Imaginators fun, accessible and easily played by gamers of any age. It doesn't break the mold, and the highlight of the game is in creating your own character. The core gameplay will feel very familiar and perhaps too safe. The ability to create your own Skylander means there's a lot of potential fun for the younger set — though it can be a hit to the wallet for parents! Players who are aging out of or burning out on Skylanders might not see much of a boost from it.
Maybe as a result of the sheer growing mass of Skylanders games, though, the level design here is particularly uninspired. Most maps are simple A-to-B affairs, with some simplistic puzzles dotting the landscape. It carries some legacy issues, like the frustratingly slow block-pushing puzzles, and the inability to easily read ahead when characters are slowly delivering their dialogue points. Plus the central hub, called M.A.P.S., is a bit more confusing than most of the past hub worlds, since it consists of several floating islands without obvious paths between them.
Imaginators feels like the next logical step in the franchise while still maintaining support for the massive library of characters from all previous games. It gives Skylanders the perfect way to survive as the era of kids using games to craft their own heroes, stories, and experiences is upon us. Skylanders has always managed to delight and surprise, but Imaginators struck me as something particularly special, scratching that creative itch that I always have. Instead of coming up with a gimmick, they put control in the players’ hands, and in interactive entertainment, that’s precisely who should have control.
Yet another addition to the popular Skylanders series but the twist is you can create your own characters. Colourful, creative and great for kids
With Imaginators, young players can have fun creating a wide roster of characters, but playing with a bunch of crystals is not the same thing of having actual characters in the real world, so some magic is lost in the process. The game is the usual action-platform-adventure and can delivery an enjoyable experience for the sixth year in a row, but the formula seems now in need of some rethinking.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Race mode also has been slightly reworked, feeling more responsive. Some real fun can be had, with up to four players competing online in head-to-head races. It channels a decent Mario Kart vibe.
The overall experience at the centre of all Skylanders: Imaginators' toys and loot chests is so charming and feature-rich that kids will enjoy it and adults won't begrudge playing it alongside them. If you don't mind the potentially large financial undertaking that a Skylanders game represents, then this is perfect for younger players. The return of Crash is also good value; it's simply heartening to see that the 90s mascot feels at home in a modern platformer.
Even with a few uninspired stages, Skylanders Imaginators manages to nail the childlike whimsy of the beat-'em-up genre so many of us grew up with. It's still a blast with friends, and even more-so now that you can share your creations and tweak them together. The series has shown signs of slowing down in recent years here and there, but it's not done yet.
Skylanders Imaginators doubles down on everything that makes the series addictive, with an appealing slate of new toys and a frankly ridiculous amount of collectible parts for the titular custom characters.
This is a franchise that keeps getting better each year, but has made a real evolutionary leap and become something far more stimulating and creative than in years past in 2016. That’s pretty neat.
With a big cast of characters, colorful scenery, fairly clever joke writing, and pick-up and play gameplay, Skylanders: Imaginators feels like a playable Saturday morning cartoon where you can insert your own hero into the fray.
Skylanders Imaginators is rich with customisation options, and a genuine sense of fun makes this a brilliant addition to the series.
A strange deviation from the traditional, action-figured based formula that succeeds in rewarding players, but comes up short in story, levels, and collectability
Skylanders Imaginators finds a new way to expand the gameplay and executes it well, by including character customization, combat classes, and other RPG inspired elements. That combined with an already strong foundation continues the franchise's forward momentum.