IT’s a pirate squid, it’s a magnetic robot, it’s…MAGNA BUCKLER!!!

All right gamers, kids, parents, and all other persons who are looking for a fun, all-ages game: the newest Skylanders game has been unveiled and it’s got a little something for old and new fans of the franchise. In a demo that was shown off by Vicarious Visions, the new head development team for Skylanders, two major innovations were revealed for the new game, Skylanders: Swapforce. The two innovations are the ability to jump (which is being added to EVERY character, new and old, meaning new frames of animation have to be created) and the titular Swap Force, 16 unfortunate Skylanders who were torn in half by a volcanic blast (just roll with it) and now have found themselves able to combine with each other into totally new heroes.

The way this works is by players taking a Swap Force character toy off of the portal, pulling it and another Swap Force Toy in half and then combining the two together and setting the toy back down on the portal. In the demo, David Nathanielsz, senior executive producer on the game at Vicarious Visions, showed off this ability by taking one new hero, Magna Charge (a robotic Skylander with magnetic powers and a wheel for a leg) and Wash Buckler (a pirate squid…which is kind of awesome) and combining them to form Wash Charge, a new hero with Magna Charge’s speed and Wash Buckler’s melee skills that tore through a miniboss. What’s great about the 16 new figures, in addition to allowing a total of 256 new Skylanders to be created, is that each half of the figures contains a microchip, meaning that that they also level-up separately. The figures are also quite sturdy, with powerful magnets holding them together.

However, if you don’t want to take the time to buy all of the figures or just want to keep using your old figures (as with Giants, ALL previous figures can be used) you can still complete the entire game. While Swap Force ccharacters will have exclusive areas that only they can reach, the main game can be completed by any combination of characters. The game will also still support drop-in drop-out co-op (local) and versus mode. The game will also start production in HD for the first time, allowing the Skylanders to look better than ever. While Toys for Bob (the creator and lead developer for Skylanders and Skylanders: Giants) isn’t taking the lead on this one, they are still involved, working closely with Vicarious Visions to make sure the world of Skylanders is enhanced by the new game.

Skylanders: Swap Force will be available this Fall on the Wii U, Xbox 360, and PS3. N-space will be developing the Wii port and Beenox will be developing the 3DS port.

Sources: Polygon , Destructoid

Gabriel B.

Gaming fan with no money to spare. Loves playing indie games, especially freeware.

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