In Ubisoft's toys-to-life adventure, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, players are given access to a virtual (or physical) armada of starships and set loose in a gorgeous alien solar system, where they're free to do the same seven or eight things over again until the game ends or they get bored.

It’s seldom simple figuring out which, if any, version of a Ubisoft game to buy. Now they’ve made a toys-to-life game that we like, but figuring out which figures and accessories to buy to enjoy Starlink: Battle For Atlas is confusing.

Ubisoft complicates things further by allowing players to purchase digital versions of the toys instead of physical ones. Don’t worry, we’ve got it all figured out.

Ubisoft’s toys-optional toys-to-life space opera arrives this week on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Switch. While I’ve only had a couple of days to dive into the sci-fi adventure, I’ve already found several things to love about Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

Starlink: Battle For Atlas isn't a Star Fox game. Nintendo's furry pilot and his famous Arwing fighter are in the Switch version and - I hope you're sitting down - not in the Xbox One and PS4 versions. It isn't even fully a toys game, a la Skylanders or Disney Infinity, because it turns out you don't even need the toys. It is, I learned at E3, an interesting game.

Tendril is a studio that was hired three years ago by Ubisoft Toronto to help sell a game idea to Ubisoft's HQ in Paris. That game is Starlink, and their pitch involved all kinds of work, from "preliminary vision" through to concept development, ship design, environments and even a trailer.