Skylanders (n): (Sk-aye-land-ers) A series of video games that are played along with collectible toy figurines. The system uses Near Field Communication in its “Portal of Power” to interact.
If you have video game-loving boys at home they have probably asked for the Skylanders game. If you’re anything like me you probably had no idea what they were talking about. So what is Skylanders?
The Skylanders series consists so far of two games. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders: Giants. They employ a cool feature that allows the game to interact with collectible figurines – most of which are sold separately from the game itself. Simply by changing which character is placed in the Portal of Power, you can change which character you are controlling in the game.
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is the first game in the series. The main character comes from a video game called Spyro the Dragon from the late 1990’s. It featured a cute, mischevious little purple dragon who had travel across the Dragon Realms and release all of his dragon friends from captivity. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure includes that same character, but also a range of other characters. Together they collect element pos and defeat bosses in order to ultimately bring life back to the land of Skylanders.
Skylanders: Giants is similar to the first game, but has a few more features. Many of the characters are bigger than the originals, in both the game and the real life figures. The characters are trying to defeat the boss, Kaos, before he destroys The Lost City. In the game Kaos has found himself transformed into a larger robotic version of himself, thus the need for giants.
The Skylanders series has been widely successful. Many parents are going to several different stores to locate certain characters for their children. The thrill of unlocking new features is pretty exciting for some boys, and we’ve seen some pretty huge collections. Thankfully, you’re not required to purchase additional characters in order to play the game. Good news for us parents with smaller budgets.
There is also talk of a third game in the series to be released later this year, called Skylanders: Swap Force. Be on the lookout, because it will surely be on their Christmas list.
My kids LOVE Skylanders! Can’t wait for the next game.
My son loves Skylanders! So much more than the original Spyro game I played. I am guilty of driving to Toys R Us, Target, and GameStop all in one day to search for a certain Skylander.
This feature is great! Duke is a huge fan of Skylanders