The Skylanders Return In A New Mobile Game

Available today worldwide Skylanders: Ring of Heroes takes the colourful characters from the toys-to-life series and turns them into pawns in a free-to-play, character-collecting role-playing game. That’s fine, I guess. Not like Activision was doing anything with them recently.

Aside from the animated Netflix series, we haven’t heard much from the Skylanders since Activision put the games on hold following 2016’s Imaginators. Many fans, myself included, were feeling burnt out after playing six games in as many years and collecting dozens of the accompanying toys. It was sad to see the series stall, but a break wasn’t the worst thing.

The good news is, Skylanders: Ring of Heroes does not require toys to unlock new heroes—just in-game currency. Developed by Com2uS, the game sees players forming teams of both heroic Skylanders and their villainous foes in order to partake in turn-based battles. Kaos is on the loose once more, and he’s stolen the Book of Dark Magic—it’s up to the players’ Portal Masters and their little friends to save the day.

Using currency earned by playing or purchased with real-world cash, players collect and level up Skylanders. The elementally attuned creatures can evolve to become more powerful and even awaken into new, enhanced forms. There’s a lot of menu-based futzing about to do with each character.

Of course, you can build a town. What kind of free-to-play collect-a-thon would it be if you couldn’t build a town? These are not amateur mobile developers.

There are no real surprises here. Skylanders: Ring of Heroes is a by-the-book mobile RPG starring characters that fans of the series might be missing about now. It’s nice to see Hot Dog, Jet-Vac, Spyro and friends doing stuff, even if it’s samey stuff.

Available on iOS and Android devices,