This week we’ve been to New York to hear about the next step for the Skylanders range of games. As you will have seen from previous shows we have been tracking this game pretty closely. The novel feature is that to access the different characters and adventures in the game you place one of the 32 collectible Skylanders figures ($7.99 Amazon) on a portal peripheral. Take it off and your progress is instantly saved to the toy. You can even use the toys across 360, Wii, PS3 and 3DS platforms.
The big question though was, “What was the next step for Skylanders?” In New York earlier today we got the chance to find out. The headlines for Skylanders Giants are the new figures that can be used in this second big Skylanders adventure:
- 8 Giant Skylanders: One out-sized Skylander for each of the different elements. These characters have special abilities in-game, but balanced in such a way that they shouldn’t eclipse the original Skylanders. Each of the Giant Skylanders has elements that light up when placed on the Portal and is about twice the size of the original figures.
- 4 Light Skylanders: Four special edition figures that have light up parts when placed on the Portal. Like the Giant Skylanders, this extends the RFID technology to wirelessly power the figures and avoids the need for batteries.
- 8 New Skylanders: Eight new normal-sized Skylander figures, one for each of the elements. These extend the elemental families with new figures that complement those already available.
- 24 Re-released Skylanders: Although exact details were less forthcoming on this issue, it seems the plan is to release a fresh set of Skylanders figures in different poses and holding different items to the originals.
Skylanders Giants will be available from Amazon later this year.
