As a father of two youngsters, whose gaming lives are only just beginning you’ll probably have a house full of either Disney Infinity Characters, Lego Dimension playsets and Skylanders. If there was ever to be a Skylander shortage it’s probably because they are all at my house.

When Skylanders Imaginators was announced my boys jumped for joy and my gaming shelves shuddered, although I was quite excited too, now having played the game it’s safe to say that you should be excited too.

The Skylanders Imaginators starter packs comes with a lighter, better looking portal, two new Skylanders and and a Creation Crystal, more about those later on. Kaos has discovered the ancient power of Mind Magic and is using it to create an unstoppable army of Doomlanders. Eon is calling upon all Portal Masters and Skylands’ greatest mystic warriors, the Senseis to stop Kaos and his minions. Now, you must use the power of your imagination to create your own Skylanders to battle in the ultimate adventure alongside the almighty Senseis to save Skylands.

The Sensei Skylanders are great warriors from 10 powerful Battle Classes that can help train the Skylanders Imaginators that you create. As part of their training the senseis can teach your created characters new skills. They are able to access special areas and have Sky-Chi Powers, a special move that is better than anything you have seen from any other Skylander. Sensei Skylander King Pen, who officially my favourite Skylander of all time has a Sky which see him attack any enemies in range at the speed of light, it’s an awesome move. The other Sensei you get with the starter pack is the Golden Queen. The cast of Skylanders have finally found their voices, most likely a decision made to coincide with the release of the new Netflix series coming out on the 28th October. It’s a positive change though, and adds even more character to the game.

There are 31 new Skylanders to collect, and all of your existing Skylanders work including the Super Chargers and you can even use portals from previous games, but this year with the creations Crystals the game has changed. Creation Crystals each have their own elements, when you place the Crystal onto the portal you’ll begin the creation process. Your First choice is a permanent one; allowing you to choose from a range of classes for your Skylander. After that you can begin to create the character of your choice. There are a huge amount of possibilities and I had a lot more fun putting together my character than I thought I would. You can transfer your creations over to the Skylanders app and eventually you’ll be able to order a 3D printed version of chosen Skylander.

skylandersimaginators-1

Once you have completed your character you can begin to play as normal and you have the chance to po back into the creation toll whenever you feel like it. During your playthrough of Imaginators you’ll collect chests that will contain which contain Imaginites, there are common, rare, epic and ultimate version contain all manner of items that can be used to upgrade your characters. It’s a shame Activision felt the need to put micro transactions in a kids game, but thankfully you can get through the whole title without needing to purchase any chests.

I absolutely love the level design of this game, it’s simple enough for the little ones to enjoy, yet when you ramp up the difficulty level it’s still just as much fun. With previous Skylanders titles, it was often the case that there was lots of the game you couldn’t access because you didn’t have the right Skylander. In imaginators this isn’t the case, there is plenty of bonus content that does require a Sensei or a Skylander of a certain element but the main story can completed with just one element which is excellent. The bonus content is a lot of fun too, with lots of mini-games to take part in and a completely separate racing mode that allows you to make use of your Super Chargers. The combat hasn’t changed very much but that’s no bad thing, though the pace is a bit too pedestrian.

skylandersimaginators-1

Yet again, Skylanders will be a huge hit with families over Christmas – the Creation Crystals are brilliant, and will give you hours of fun creating new Skylanders to take into battle, there is plenty of content to keep children and adults entertained for hours. I’ve had so much with this and I can’t wait to spend more time creating more Skylanders with my kids.