You can tell with this game that Toys for Bob knew that the series was heading towards its end. Because I get a feeling that they were both apathetic over the end coming sooner than expected and yet having a sense of desperation from them to keep the series alive.
Starting with the gameplay, the same Skylanders gameplay is here, and it’s still fun. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Unfortunately, it gets broken by the new additions added, both with the Senseis and the Imaginators.
Starting with the former, the Senseis are completely overpowered, and honestly, they are fun to play with, all while being pretty good designs and varied gameplay, even though some of them share weapon types. But I have to complain about bringing back villains from Trap Team as Skylanders. Not only does it make that game less special (even if I didn’t like it), but Skylanders feels lacking in villains now when the Doom Raiders (at least four of them) are good guys. And the Senseis cause another issue which I will get to after talking about the latter.
For the Imaginators, I’ll admit, the customization gives you many options, and it’s fun to come up with new ideas for Skylanders. But that’s where my praise for them ends, because the attacks you can give them doesn't make them nearly as fun to play with as the Senseis. The game tries to make you wanna play as them with all the collectible parts, but let me tell you, you wouldn’t want to. Because despite sharing their name with the title, they have nothing to do. All of the cool things to do go to the Senseis, while the Imaginators just get to be stronger against the Doomlanders and get an absurdly high amount of HP, which basically just makes them player controlled damage sponges. Other than that, they are simply normal Skylanders with more uninspired gameplay.
And now for the issue I brought up earlier. There is power creep at play with these new guys. They were designed to be much more powerful than previous Skylanders and the game was made with this in mind, making them worthless. All in an attempt to get you to buy the new figures instead of just relying on your old ones. It was not a wise choice, as it neglects one of the things that helped Skylanders survive, at least for five years, the backwards capability. The last two games didn't require you to only use the new ones, but this time, Activision is asking you for more money, otherwise, better play on easy mode, bub.
The levels, aren’t bad, but they aren’t as memorable compared to previous games. There are still some, don’t get me wrong, but the others either don’t leave an impression or just reuses stuff that has been done before. You wanna play another dual-world level? How about having the magnet mechanic from SuperChargers again? I don’t know, I still haven’t played Lost Imaginite Mines because have you seen how much a Ro-Bow figure costs?!
The story? Forget it. There isn’t one. The series is known for its stories being just “go from one place to another to stop the bad guy”, but in this game it’s just ridiculous, because none of the levels flow into each other. It’s just Kaos needs a new plan of making a stronger Doomlander. Sure, they all follow the same idea as mentioned, but Kaos is just stuck in the same position when we foil his plans, so there’s no plot progression of any kind despite there only being 10 story levels. This may be a lighter game that focuses more on comedy, but it just gets boring after a while. It’s not until chapter 7 where it feels like the plot has a direction, and yet, that’s when the game starts taking itself a bit more seriously. But by doing so, it lets big plot holes go by unacknowledged, which is odd when the game usually makes fun of its plot. By the end, it just feels like nothing happened.
But the one positive I can give about the story is that I like the contrast between how the player and Kaos use Mind Magic to create their warriors. Kaos just wants to create the ultimate bad guy quickly without much thought on how they’re gonna be it while the player can take their time creating an Imaginator with the abilities to make them a Skylander and even give them a personality. It makes me wish the game actually explored Kaos’ lack of imagination in the matter instead of just simply having it be the catalyst of every level without delving into it.
Now I’ve gone through all things major of note with this game and it's either nothing special or have setbacks, even without comparing it to what came before. Remember what I said about the developers coming across as both apathetic over the end and desperate to keep the series alive while they were making this game? They blended together and it made this game the one in the series with the worst usage of toys at a time when the gimmick was about to crash and burn, pretty much ensuring that this game was gonna be it. This resulted in the game arguably leaving the smallest impression of the Skylanders series, and isn’t that just the worst thing a franchise killer can do?
Starting with the gameplay, the same Skylanders gameplay is here, and it’s still fun. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Unfortunately, it gets broken by the new additions added, both with the Senseis and the Imaginators.
Starting with the former, the Senseis are completely overpowered, and honestly, they are fun to play with, all while being pretty good designs and varied gameplay, even though some of them share weapon types. But I have to complain about bringing back villains from Trap Team as Skylanders. Not only does it make that game less special (even if I didn’t like it), but Skylanders feels lacking in villains now when the Doom Raiders (at least four of them) are good guys. And the Senseis cause another issue which I will get to after talking about the latter.
For the Imaginators, I’ll admit, the customization gives you many options, and it’s fun to come up with new ideas for Skylanders. But that’s where my praise for them ends, because the attacks you can give them doesn't make them nearly as fun to play with as the Senseis. The game tries to make you wanna play as them with all the collectible parts, but let me tell you, you wouldn’t want to. Because despite sharing their name with the title, they have nothing to do. All of the cool things to do go to the Senseis, while the Imaginators just get to be stronger against the Doomlanders and get an absurdly high amount of HP, which basically just makes them player controlled damage sponges. Other than that, they are simply normal Skylanders with more uninspired gameplay.
And now for the issue I brought up earlier. There is power creep at play with these new guys. They were designed to be much more powerful than previous Skylanders and the game was made with this in mind, making them worthless. All in an attempt to get you to buy the new figures instead of just relying on your old ones. It was not a wise choice, as it neglects one of the things that helped Skylanders survive, at least for five years, the backwards capability. The last two games didn't require you to only use the new ones, but this time, Activision is asking you for more money, otherwise, better play on easy mode, bub.
The levels, aren’t bad, but they aren’t as memorable compared to previous games. There are still some, don’t get me wrong, but the others either don’t leave an impression or just reuses stuff that has been done before. You wanna play another dual-world level? How about having the magnet mechanic from SuperChargers again? I don’t know, I still haven’t played Lost Imaginite Mines because have you seen how much a Ro-Bow figure costs?!
The story? Forget it. There isn’t one. The series is known for its stories being just “go from one place to another to stop the bad guy”, but in this game it’s just ridiculous, because none of the levels flow into each other. It’s just Kaos needs a new plan of making a stronger Doomlander. Sure, they all follow the same idea as mentioned, but Kaos is just stuck in the same position when we foil his plans, so there’s no plot progression of any kind despite there only being 10 story levels. This may be a lighter game that focuses more on comedy, but it just gets boring after a while. It’s not until chapter 7 where it feels like the plot has a direction, and yet, that’s when the game starts taking itself a bit more seriously. But by doing so, it lets big plot holes go by unacknowledged, which is odd when the game usually makes fun of its plot. By the end, it just feels like nothing happened.
But the one positive I can give about the story is that I like the contrast between how the player and Kaos use Mind Magic to create their warriors. Kaos just wants to create the ultimate bad guy quickly without much thought on how they’re gonna be it while the player can take their time creating an Imaginator with the abilities to make them a Skylander and even give them a personality. It makes me wish the game actually explored Kaos’ lack of imagination in the matter instead of just simply having it be the catalyst of every level without delving into it.
Now I’ve gone through all things major of note with this game and it's either nothing special or have setbacks, even without comparing it to what came before. Remember what I said about the developers coming across as both apathetic over the end and desperate to keep the series alive while they were making this game? They blended together and it made this game the one in the series with the worst usage of toys at a time when the gimmick was about to crash and burn, pretty much ensuring that this game was gonna be it. This resulted in the game arguably leaving the smallest impression of the Skylanders series, and isn’t that just the worst thing a franchise killer can do?