Skylanders Imaginators Reviews
Skylanders Imaginators is rich with customisation options, and a genuine sense of fun makes this a brilliant addition to the series.
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.
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 is saved by its focus on character customisation.
After a dozen hours romping around the Skylands with Faemily, Seamusbot, Archer Rex, Bird Kirkilton and Dadcat Robot, it feels like I’ve made the game my own. This is my Skylanders.
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.
Compared to last year’s Superchargers, Imaginators is certainly a step in the right direction. Instead of bolting something onto the existing formula, Toys For Bob have instead gone for reinvention. Being able to construct and share your own Skylanders isn’t a massive game changer, but it feels far more considered than other gimmicks.
Skylanders Imaginators introduces at last the character customization, which gives the player lots of possibilities and entertainment. Apart from this and the Skylanders Supercharger, there are no other improvements in this new installment.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
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.
Despite its simplification in the plot and the mechanics of the Story Mode, kids will finally unleash their imagination.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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
A huge, bright, and endlessly charming adventure filled with things to do and stuff to unlock.
The core gameplay is still a lot of fun and the level of customization with the new Imaginators is quite impressive, but a few decisions prevent Skylanders Imaginators from taking the series to the next level.
This port casts a glaring spotlight on Switch's comparatively weak specs, but also acts as an ad for the console's handheld and tabletop modes
Now six years old, Activision’s toys-to-life series remains fun and fresh by giving kids an opportunity to get creative
The ability to create your own Skylanders adds a great new twist to the series. The new sensei figures are nice additions, and using them in the gong battles pose a refreshing challenge. Aspects of the story can be a little underwhelming but the target age group probably won’t have any problem with it. While the Boss battles were repetitive and easy, the overall level design and experience is very enjoyable.
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.
Just when you might have expected the original Toys-to-Life franchise to be running out of steam, Activision has brought it back, revitalised and exciting. Imaginators might just be the best Skylanders yet.
Imaginators is yet another solid Skylanders offering that your kids will love. The action is extremely varied, providing a good mix of action, platforming, and other various offshoots like racing, which keeps things fresh and fun. While I enjoy creating my own characters, the requirement to purchase special crystals to do so feels like I am just being forced to buy save slots.