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‘Crash Bandicoot 4’ pretends the PS2-era games never happened
Precision platforming is at the heart of 'It's About Time.'
'Spyro Reignited Trilogy' reaches PS4 and Xbox One on September 21st
After years of speculation and more than a little teasing, it's official: the Spyro series is getting a remake. Activision and Toys for Bob have unveiled the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which reworks the first three Insomniac-made games (Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage and Spyro: Year of the Dragon) for PS4 and Xbox One. Not surprisingly, the graphics get the biggest upgrade. Toys for Bob has "faithfully" mapped the original levels, but with loads of added detail and flourishes that weren't possible on a PlayStation 20 years ago. And then there's the characters -- much like the Crash Bandicoot overhaul, Spyro and company look better than the original box art (not to mention Spyro's fiercer appearance in Skylanders).
How 3D printing brings 'Skylanders' to life
Toys for Bob's Skylanders franchise isn't the only "toys to life" game in town anymore and Paul Reiche, co-founder and studio head, is well aware of the deep-pocketed competition. "We recognize that we've got Disney with Infinity and Nintendo with Amiibo and, you know, they have entered into this world with their own products. And it's really our job to make sure that, through innovation, we're leaders," he says. The franchise, which lets players control virtual versions of their RFID-equipped figurines in-game, was the first to successfully merge physical toys and video gaming as part of a new crossover entertainment category. Given that penchant for innovation, it's no surprise that the studio has now fully embraced 3D printing as a means of streamlining its in-house creative process.
#Weirded Returns
#Weirded's back this week with another carousel of visual delights. In this second installment, see Engadget's social media editor take the literal piss out of widespread Ebola panic, peek inside Toys for Bob, the studio behind mega-franchise Skylanders, to look at how 3D printing brings new characters to life and jet off to Japan for a confounding glimpse of the uncanny advances in robotic absurdity. The whole shebang's just after the break. Enjoy the feast!
'Skylanders' takes on Disney Infinity with its new toy-to-tablet starter pack
If you've heard of Skylanders, we're going to guess either you're a kid, you're a parent with kids or you know someone with kids. And if you do, we're going to guess you probably already know about Skylanders Trap Team, the latest game to come out of the Skylanders franchise that's set to debut later this year. As a brief reminder, the game essentially comes with a device that you can use as a "portal" to transform real-world figurines into in-game characters. The hook with the Trap Team version is that you can use one of eight "Traptanium traps" to "trap" enemies in the game -- you do so by inserting a tiny plastic dongle into a slot on the aforementioned portal. You can then play as the trapped enemy if you like, switching between it and your main character as you progress in the game. Which is all well and good if you're content with playing with the game on a console. But what if you don't have one? Or what if your kid's preferred device for gaming is a tablet? Well, fortunately for you, the team behind Skylanders has just announced that it'll be producing Skylanders Trap Team for the tablet as well. Activision and Toys for Bob, the studio behind Skylanders, claims that this is the first time in franchise history that it's bringing the full AAA console experience to the smaller handheld screen. Indeed, Paul Reiche, the head of Toys for Bob, tells us that the tablet version of Skylanders Trap Team is "pixel for pixel" the same as the one for the 360.
One of Activision's top moneymakers gets a new entry in Skylanders: Trap Team
Like taxes, iPhones and, well, Madden, you can count on a new Skylanders game every year. If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, that may just be a symptom of not being around kids -- the toy / video game series is a dominant force in the kids gaming market, sharing responsibility with biggies like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft for bringing in 80 percent of Activision's earnings in 2013. Each new entry in the game series comes with a new physical device for reading toy figurines; when said figurines are placed on the device (called a "portal"), they're transported into the game world and playable in-game. Between the figures ($5 - $7 apiece, on average) and the games (anywhere from $7 to $60), it's easy to understand why the franchise is so profitable. Thankfully, the franchise is also lauded by most critics as a pretty decent game, too. The next entry, Skylanders: Trap Team, arrives this October and it's the largest game in the franchise to date.
Skylanders Swap Force is the next annual entry in the 'toys to life' gaming franchise, we go hands-on
Three years, three games. Skylanders Swap Force -- the latest crossplatform entry in the mega-successful Skylanders game franchise -- cements Activision's annual approach to its "toys to life" series. The games merge toy figurines with RFID technology to allow in-game avatar representations of the toys to move from game console to game console, all the while storing unique information about that character. It's essentially the equivalent of how fighting games work in Japanese arcades, albeit with children's toys and a relatively simple action game: you level up your character, which is tied to your toy, and it can be used to continue earning experience on a variety of game consoles. The second iteration brought Giants to the world of Skylanders. This year, Activision's in-house studio Vicarious Visions (known for working on powerhouses like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk Pro Skater previously) is taking the series in another direction, keeping original Skylanders, the second game's Giants, and adding a new twist in swappable characters. Yes, despite the image above of a half-octopus swashbuckler, this year's innovation isn't destructible characters. That sword in his right ... hand and the water pistol in his left can be replaced on another swappable character's bottom half -- its motion component -- creating an altogether new character. With 16 new characters, that means 256 combinations altogether; an enticing proposition to fans, and a potentially comforting thought to parents hounded by kids for new pieces every week. But it's not just swappable characters that are new in Swap Force. Activision's touting this entry as the first Skylanders entry to've been built from the ground up in HD. That's a notable change for the franchise, marking Activision's focus shifting from Nintendo's Wii to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as Nintendo's Wii U. Oh, and there's jumping. You can jump in this one.
