Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
Encyclopedia
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is a spin-off game in the Spyro series. It was published by Activision
and developed by Toys for Bob
. Vicarious Visions
developed the Nintendo 3DS
release. It was released on October 12, 2011 in Australia
for the PC and October 13, 2011 on other consoles. The game was released on October 14, 2011 in Europe
and October 16, 2011 in North America
. Frima Studio
will be developing the Web, iPhone, and iPad version of Skylanders. Square-Enix is scheduled to release a Japanese version of this game in December 2011 for Japan.
, each with unique abilities. The playable characters become unlocked when their corresponding action figures are placed on the Portal of Power. Players can also place one of these special action figures on the Portal of Power of a friend's console (even if it is not the same type of console), and the character's amassed scores, level-ups and achievements are instantly imported for the gameplay session. Additionally, two figures can be placed on the portal simultaneously, for cooperative or versus play.
Characters each have a primary attack, and a secondary attack. They gain experience points by defeating monsters, and leveling up will result in the possibility of getting upgrades. Each character has its own special abilities that differ from each other, as well as assigned elements. This provides some replayability, as each character faces the world in different ways. Although the game only comes with Spyro, Gill Grunt and Trigger Happy, players can purchase the remaining 34 action figures separately, if they so choose. All 37 toys (including "Legendary" characters and "Dark Spyro") are playable on all the game platforms Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure will be on.
had, and they chose the Spyro the Dragon franchise. 'Attempts to revive broad-audience mascot franchises haven't seen predictable success in the game industry. Just creating a new Spyro game after the traditional fashion was unlikely to work,' says Paul Reiche III
. And reinventing the character as a "really gritty, strange otherworldly Spyro" didn't seem like a promising idea. Spyro needed a radical new idea. Reiche says he had considered integrating technology with toys and games for a while, and it was the kind of concept that was so outlandish that it was the most promising idea the team sketched out for the brand.
The working title of Skylanders was originally Spyro's Kingdom from June 2009. It was revealed that the game was originally going to be a mature Spyro game that included blood, but the developers of Toys for Bob lost their enthusiasm and felt that this direction did not feel like "Spyro", before saying that making a dark game is not what their passion was about, thus Spyro was not intended to be a mature game series to begin with. They spent six months on a variety of different directions with Spyro, and with the time and budget given by Activision, Toys for Bob eventually came upon the idea of Skylanders. Executive producer Jeff Poffenbarger stated that the game is geared more towards younger gamers who have no prior knowledge of the Spyro character.
Toys R Us has partnered with Activision and will help launch Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure this fall with a number of unnamed exclusives. The game and toys were developed by Toys for Bob. The game's main story was penned by Alek Sokolow and Joel Cohen who both worked on Pixar's original Toy Story
film. This game was also originally revealed to be exclusive for the Wii, but when this game was revealed on February, it was announced that this game will be also be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPad, iPhone, the Web, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers.
According to the Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bathia, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure "is testing apparently very well with kids", who are the game's target audience.
Nickelodeon and Activision had worked together to help sponsor a tour called Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Live to help promote the game, ranging from September 10 - 11 at Liverpool, Williamson Square to September 17 - 18 at London, Westfield Stratford.
has given the Xbox 360 version, a 7.5 out of 10.0 for it's innovative family-friendly gameplay with toys with brains that actually work well with its Role-playing-style progression, and the Adventure Pack DLC Content works very well. Also adds on to the game's expand with it's figure collection. But they did criticize the game for a lack of online multiplayer, costly to complete everything in the game and pointed out on the Portal peripheral for being temperamental. Nintendo World Report
gave the game a 9 out of 10, praising the Wii version for fun gameplay, great production values and its perfection for young gamers, and the 3DS version for unique and visually appealing characters, being great for younger gamers, and for being a well-designed 3D platformer. Gaming Nexus gave Skylanders a B+ and praised the game for taking the Spyro franchise to a younger audience once more, though noted that the game has a few flaws. Destructoid
praised the game with a 8 out of 10 saying, "It's not the most complex game on the market, but the innovative gadgetry and authentic thoughtfulness on the part of the developer stands out in a market so used to churning out the same old crap." IGN
gave Skylanders an 8.0 out of 10.
Skylanders was nominated for two Toy Industry Association awards: 'Game of the Year' and 'Innovative Toy of the Year'.
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
and developed by Toys for Bob
Toys For Bob
Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. They are most known for creating Star Control and its sequel Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, but they were not involved in the development of Star Control 3...
. Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer founded by the high school brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990, which developed some PC and Game Boy Color games in late 90's and 2000. They later developed Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999...
developed the Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...
release. It was released on October 12, 2011 in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
for the PC and October 13, 2011 on other consoles. The game was released on October 14, 2011 in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and October 16, 2011 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Frima Studio
Frima Studio
Based in Quebec City and founded in 2003, Frima Studio is a Canadian multiplatform game developer. The studio develops products across multiple platforms, including the Web, console, handheld, iPhone, iPad, TV and mobile...
will be developing the Web, iPhone, and iPad version of Skylanders. Square-Enix is scheduled to release a Japanese version of this game in December 2011 for Japan.
Gameplay
In Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, players take on the role of a powerful Portal Master who can control over 32 different characters, including the fire-breathing dragon, Spyro. Players will embark on a fantastical journey into an amazing world, where they will explore mysterious, mythical lands, battle menacing outlandish creatures, collect gold and treasures, and solve interesting puzzles while on a quest to save their world from Kaos, an evil Portal Master, that they must defeat. The video game comes with 3 action figures and a peripheral called the "Portal of Power", which connects to the player's console of choice. Each action figure represents one of 37 playable characters, including SpyroSpyro (character)
Spyro the Dragon is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Spyro the Dragon, Legend of Spyro, and Skylanders video game series....
, each with unique abilities. The playable characters become unlocked when their corresponding action figures are placed on the Portal of Power. Players can also place one of these special action figures on the Portal of Power of a friend's console (even if it is not the same type of console), and the character's amassed scores, level-ups and achievements are instantly imported for the gameplay session. Additionally, two figures can be placed on the portal simultaneously, for cooperative or versus play.
Characters each have a primary attack, and a secondary attack. They gain experience points by defeating monsters, and leveling up will result in the possibility of getting upgrades. Each character has its own special abilities that differ from each other, as well as assigned elements. This provides some replayability, as each character faces the world in different ways. Although the game only comes with Spyro, Gill Grunt and Trigger Happy, players can purchase the remaining 34 action figures separately, if they so choose. All 37 toys (including "Legendary" characters and "Dark Spyro") are playable on all the game platforms Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure will be on.
3DS version
This version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is more of an action platformer than its console counterparts. Players have to complete levels by gathering crystals, which lets them unlock more levels. Each level is littered with crystals, obtained by going towards the end of the level, or by completing a variety of tasks, such as defeating a certain amount of enemies, or finding items. Whenever the player finds a crystal, an enemy awakens and a time limit starts. They have to defeat enemies, and get clocks in the level to get more time to ward off the chasing enemy. Unlike other versions, characters can make a jump, and a double jump. This version of the game is set in a different realm in Skylands called the Radiant Isles, and a different force of darkness is faced under the command of Hektore.Development
It is mentioned by Toys for Bob that the initial vision of Skylanders came from their command to reinvent one of the franchise VivendiVivendi
Vivendi SA is a French international media conglomerate with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications, the Internet, and video games. It is headquartered in Paris.- History :...
had, and they chose the Spyro the Dragon franchise. 'Attempts to revive broad-audience mascot franchises haven't seen predictable success in the game industry. Just creating a new Spyro game after the traditional fashion was unlikely to work,' says Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III is a game designer, particularly for computer games. Reiche is best known for being the co-creator, together with Fred Ford, of the Star Control universe.-Pen and paper RPGs:...
. And reinventing the character as a "really gritty, strange otherworldly Spyro" didn't seem like a promising idea. Spyro needed a radical new idea. Reiche says he had considered integrating technology with toys and games for a while, and it was the kind of concept that was so outlandish that it was the most promising idea the team sketched out for the brand.
The working title of Skylanders was originally Spyro's Kingdom from June 2009. It was revealed that the game was originally going to be a mature Spyro game that included blood, but the developers of Toys for Bob lost their enthusiasm and felt that this direction did not feel like "Spyro", before saying that making a dark game is not what their passion was about, thus Spyro was not intended to be a mature game series to begin with. They spent six months on a variety of different directions with Spyro, and with the time and budget given by Activision, Toys for Bob eventually came upon the idea of Skylanders. Executive producer Jeff Poffenbarger stated that the game is geared more towards younger gamers who have no prior knowledge of the Spyro character.
Toys R Us has partnered with Activision and will help launch Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure this fall with a number of unnamed exclusives. The game and toys were developed by Toys for Bob. The game's main story was penned by Alek Sokolow and Joel Cohen who both worked on Pixar's original Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
film. This game was also originally revealed to be exclusive for the Wii, but when this game was revealed on February, it was announced that this game will be also be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPad, iPhone, the Web, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers.
According to the Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bathia, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure "is testing apparently very well with kids", who are the game's target audience.
Nickelodeon and Activision had worked together to help sponsor a tour called Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Live to help promote the game, ranging from September 10 - 11 at Liverpool, Williamson Square to September 17 - 18 at London, Westfield Stratford.
Voice Talent
- Josh KeatonJosh KeatonJoshua "Josh" Keaton is an American actor, voice actor, singer and music producer.-Early life:Keaton was born Joshua Luis Wiener in Hacienda Heights, California. He has three sisters: Danielle, Alitzah , and Sabrina...
as Spyro - Sumalee MontanoSumalee MontanoSumalee Montano is an actress. Born in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., she was an investment bank analyst working in New York City and Hong Kong before acting, and is a writer. She has had roles in ER, Minority Report, The West Wing, Boston Legal, Bones, Nip/Tuck, Hancock, and Commander in Chief...
as Cali - Patrick WarburtonPatrick WarburtonPatrick John Warburton is an American actor of television, film, and voice. He is best known for his several TV roles, including the title role of The Tick, David Puddy on Seinfeld, the evil Johnny Johnson on NewsRadio, and anchorman Jeb Denton on Less Than Perfect...
as Flynn - Michael Yurchak as Hugo
- Freddie Winston as Trigger Happy, Gill Grunt, Ignitor, Terrafin, Chop Chop, Bash, Ghost Roaster, Bo, and Additional voices (uncredited)
- Daniel HagenDaniel HagenDaniel Hagen is an American voice, television, and film actor. He has also done miscellaneous work as a member of the crew, as well as guest appearances on Seinfeld , CSI, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friends, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Charmed...
as Master Eon - Richard Steven HorvitzRichard Steven HorvitzRichard Steven Horvitz, sometimes credited as Richard S. Horvitz, Richard Horvitz, or Richard Wood, is an American actor and voice actor best known for his work as the voice of the original Alpha 5 in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, and Power Rangers Turbo, as Raz in Psychonauts,...
as Kaos
Reception
The game has received mostly positive reviews with a Metacritic score of an 82. GamespotGameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
has given the Xbox 360 version, a 7.5 out of 10.0 for it's innovative family-friendly gameplay with toys with brains that actually work well with its Role-playing-style progression, and the Adventure Pack DLC Content works very well. Also adds on to the game's expand with it's figure collection. But they did criticize the game for a lack of online multiplayer, costly to complete everything in the game and pointed out on the Portal peripheral for being temperamental. Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report is a Nintendo-specific video game website that covers Nintendo's current consoles, the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, and Wii.-History:...
gave the game a 9 out of 10, praising the Wii version for fun gameplay, great production values and its perfection for young gamers, and the 3DS version for unique and visually appealing characters, being great for younger gamers, and for being a well-designed 3D platformer. Gaming Nexus gave Skylanders a B+ and praised the game for taking the Spyro franchise to a younger audience once more, though noted that the game has a few flaws. Destructoid
Destructoid
Destructoid is an independent video game-focused blog based in San Francisco, California that was founded in March 2006. It has since grown into one of the most widely read video game sites on the Internet, reaching more than 3 million unique visitors per month...
praised the game with a 8 out of 10 saying, "It's not the most complex game on the market, but the innovative gadgetry and authentic thoughtfulness on the part of the developer stands out in a market so used to churning out the same old crap." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave Skylanders an 8.0 out of 10.
Skylanders was nominated for two Toy Industry Association awards: 'Game of the Year' and 'Innovative Toy of the Year'.