Hey, looks like that URL from a few weeks back was real. Today in New York City, in preparation for the annual Toy Fair trade show, Activision announced Skylanders Giants, the follow-up to Spyro’s Adventure. Here’s the high points:
Skylanders just got bigger.
I know the game is a hit, but the new figures really are big — there will be eight figures that are each twice the size of standard Skylanders, and that’s both in-game and out. The one Giant character they’ve revealed is Tree Rex.
Tree Rex poses with Stealth Elf for scale...and friendship
Giants aren’t the only new characters.
In addition to the big guys, there will be eight normal-sized Skylanders. I don’t know if these will fall into existing elemental categories (which might mean one new one per element) or if there’s something else planned. Alchemist is named in the screenshots.
Alchemist dishes it out on some brutish guards
Some of them light up.
According to the press information, some of the new characters light up when they sit on the Portal of Power. No batteries are required for this, so I’m curious to see exactly how it works.
Your existing characters work in the new game.
All the Skylanders in your collection are forward-compatible, and they retain any stats and items you’ve collected for them. Maybe this is a good reason to top them all up between now and the release of the new game.
It’s coming out this fall.
The only release date is “Fall 2012,” but the development duties are once again handled by Toys For Bob. The platforms listed are PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and “mobile and handheld” — but no idea exactly which ones yet. I do not expect that date to get more specific until later on in the year.
Remember, there are still characters for the original game that have yet to appear on store shelves, so we may not hear anything new for some time. But when we do, I’ll post about it!
