New Skylanders Game Will Allow Custom Skylander Creation

The premise of Skylanders is already based on the classic childhood fantasy of watching your toys come to life. Now, Imaginators, the next installment of the popular toys-to-life video games, will take that premise one step further by allowing players to create their own playable Skylanders.

Players start by choosing one of ten battle classes (ranging from sorcerer to brawler, etc.) and then choose everything from their character’s hair to weapons and armor to the pitch of their voice. The keys to this process lie within the Creation Crystals, cylindrical toys players place on the “Portal of Power” game pad to begin creating. Once completed, the character file is saved into the crystals (think Pokéball) which can then be read by any other “Portal of Power.” So, not only does each Crystal serve as the physical avatar of these characters, but this gives the young Skylanders fanbase the ability to tote their crystals to friends’ houses to show off their latest creations.

As a tie-in, Activision is also releasing 31 Sensei characters toys. Once placed in the game, these figures serve as teachers to the newly born custom Skylanders, granting power-ups, new moves and other unlocks. 11 of these Senseis will be former villains from past games.