All the info you need to know about THIS GAME! (FINALLY UPDATED 9/17)

iSO · Feb 14, 2011 3:40 AM

The old way of updating has been DEBUNKED! If you want to see the updated info I'm providing, go to these two links:
Info document - UPDATED 9/17
Reference data document - UPDATED 9/17
Beta element point-out document - *NEW*

Anything past this very text is outdated, and will not be updated.

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STATUS: Pre-alpha stage (the game is still in development as we speak!) With the lack of info for the past 4 weeks, we're in drought mode.

NAME: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
GENRE: Action-Adventure
DEVELOPER: Toys for Bob
PUBLISHER: Activision
CONFIRMED PLATFORMS: Wii, 3DS
RELEASE DATE: Targeted for Fall 2011 (Q4), actual release dates not shown
PLAYERS: 1-2 (cooperative, or battle against each other)
Official website - skylandersgame.com
Toys 'R' Us website - special product page

STORY
Players take on the role of a powerful "Portal Master", who can control 30 unique characters, including the purple dragon Spyro (series and the character owned by Activision). Each of them are protectors of their own individual worlds...each of them having a backstory...but an evil Portal Master named Kaos threw them out from their world into our world (The Real World!) - rendered frozen as toys. It is up to the players of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure to help them get back to their world and take back from what it once was...!

Taking place in the universe of Skyland, heroes will explore a variety of worlds, seek treasures, and confront obstacles and deadly foes and defeat Kaos, the evil Portal Master in order to save the world.

GAMEPLAY
The camera shows the characters, along with the gameplay from the top-down point of view most of the time. Characters each have a primary attack, and a secondary attack. They gain experience points by defeating monsters, and leveling up will result in the possibility of getting upgrades. Each character has it's own special abilities that differ from each other, as well as assigned elements. This provides some replayability, as each character faces the world in different ways.

Treasures such as gems, and coins can be found all over the worlds either laying on the ground, or hiding inside breakable containers. Orbs come from defeated enemies, but as of now we have no info on what it does. Devouring food recovers some of the creature's health.

With two players on hand, they can cooperatively play the game together (imagine, two Spyros during the game!), or against each other in a variety of arenas to choose from, each having it's own appearance, and obstacles within it.

Confirmed level/realm names:

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME
Besides the game disk/cartridge that comes along with it, the player is required to use the "Portal of Power", and at least one figurine in order to play the game. When placed on the "portal", the character suddenly appears on the screen and you can control the character. During gameplay, the data will always be flowing, saving it's experiences, achievements, level stats - all that stuff painlessly. You can freely switch characters on the go!

For the full experience, Activision recommends you to buy all the figurines and try out it's abilities, and unlock hidden content that certain playable characters can only access If you only want to play as Spyro (Starter Pack and Adventure Pack will include him), then you don't have to buy additional figurines. It's that simple!

DEVELOPMENT
The game has been development since the Summer 2009, assigned to video game developer, Toys for Bob - citing that this is their biggest project ever. Activision wanted to spotlight Spyro to a new audience, since this is the first game in the "Skylanders" series. Activision hired Hollywood talent character designer Tom Hester (Shrek), screenwriters Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen (Toy Story) and composer Hans Zimmer (Inception, Modern Warfare 2) to work on this game.

Michael Graham, notable of his involvement with the Legend of Spyro series is working on the game as a associate producer at Activision Publishing.

In preperation for the American International Toy Fair 2011, Activision called up Ignited to setup the Activision Booth under the size constraints of 20x40 feet, and in a very short timeframe:

The whole booth from Gill Grunt's corner
The booth consists of a themed-castle with the horizontally revolving Activision sign. In order to fully capture audience attention, they created four life-size figurines consisting of Spyro, Gill Grunt, Trigger Happy, and Stealth Elf at the corners of the area; each of those showcased gameplay footage for that specific character.
The long section (40 feet), along with the game logo
The long section shows the game logo with a green glow behind it. Below the logo is the section where it shows the 8 characters out of 32 in figurines, encased in a glass box. From left to right: Stump Smash (dark green), Prism Break (light yellow), Stealth Elf (light green), Spyro (purple), Gill Grunt (baby blue), Trigger Happy (white), Ignitor (red).
Each character has it's own glowing color occupied below there, along with it's own gameplay footage above the figurines.
The short section (20 feet)
This is where an Activision representative shows interested people a demonstration of how the technology of this game works. They let people play the (Wii version) game a bit and give them answers.

Activision revealed the game on February 11, 2011 through a press release, with the game showcased in the American International Toy Fair in booth #3055, shown from February 13 through 16. The company plans to release the game through consoles, phones, and computers. As for the figurines, the rest of the playable characters (not packaged in one of the two packs) will be periodically released after the game hits stores from then to 2012.

MARKETING AND RELEASE
Activision has partnered up Toys 'R' Us to distribute the game exclusively after showing them the concept of the game.

In Australia, Activision called up Workshop Events (formerly known as James Gordon Workshop) to create the launch of the latest Spyro game in the Crystal Palace Luna Park Sydney:

The entrance
Set in a world of black at the entrance, with monitor stuff. Going through the stairs, with ivy-stuff over the stairwell, and going over the blue river.
The main event through the bridge
At the left - the ivy-covered walls with green lighting, and at the right, the bridge that shows he way to the main event.
Stage set of Skyland
With a capacity of 140 guests, this area gave a blueish atmosphere with low fog, clouds, thin sheets above everything to enhance it's very surroundings in the world of Skyland. Chairs are set up there where they can see the projection screen there.
Promotional stands and demonstration units
Upon sighting this area, there are Spyro poses respectively showing up on high quality cardboard promotional stands. There's an area where you can see demonstration units, with one at the left, and one at the right. Between the middle of the TV monitors below the game logo, seems to be the packaging for the game (small, medium, and large ones). Unfortunately, they're far away that you can't see them in full detail.

It is unknown if this is the only place planned in Australia where the game will launch in Fall, and/or if the design specifications are final.

iSO · Feb 14, 2011 3:41 AM

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PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
18 out of 32 characters have been seen. Only 5 have the full info, and 8 of them have yet to receive an official name.

Spyro
(figurine, game screenshot, promotional art, promotional statue via Toy Fair 2011, concept art 1, concept art 2, concept art 3)
Element: Magic
Primary Attack: Fire Breath
Secondary Attack: Horn Charge
Upgrades include: Flight, Spread Fire, Aerial Head Bash
Bio: Spyro hails from a rare line of magical purple dragons that come from a faraway land few have ever traveled. He has been on many exciting adventures, and has a remarkable knowledge of the different lands he protects, more so than any other Skylander. A strong-willed dragon who is young at heart, Spyro is fearless and brave. A true hero dedicated to defending his world from all things evil.
Trigger Happy
(figurine, game screenshot, promotional art, promotional statue via Toy Fair 2011, concept art)
Element: Tech
Primary Attack: Gold Coin Shooters
Secondary Attack: Safe Cracker Bomb
Upgrades include: Pot-of-Gold Bomb, Super Charged Gold Blasters, Gold Nugget Slinger
Bio: Trigger Happy is more than his name, it's his solution to every problem. Nobody knows from where he came. He just showed up one day blasting gold coins everywhere with his custom-crafted shooters. Now everyone throughout the lands knows of this crazy goldslinger that will take down any bad guy... usually without bothering to aim.
Eruptor
(figurine, game screenshot, promotional art, concept art)
Element: Fire
Primary Attack: Lava Lob
Secondary Attack: Eruption
Upgrades include: Magma Bombs, Volcanic Eruption, Lava Flow
Bio: Eruptor is a force of nature, hailing from a species that lived deep in the underground until a volcano launched their entire civilization onto the crust. He's a hot head with a strong dislike for anything evil, so whenever something bad threatens his world, he quickly erupts… quite literally. To help control his temper, he likes to relax in lava pools, particularly because there are no crowds.
Ignitor
(figurine, game screenshot, concept art 1, concept art 2)
Element: Fire
Primary Attack: Flaming Sword
Secondary Attack: Fire Spirit
Upgrades include: Blue Flame Fury, Fire Flourish, Armor Leap
Bio: On his first quest as a knight, Ignitor was tricked by a cunning witch into wearing a magical suit of armor that he was told would resist fire from a dragon. As it turned out, it was made of cursed steel. He journeyed to a dragon's lair where a single blast of fire transformed him into a blazing spirit, binding him to the suit of armor for eternity. Despite this setback, Ignitor remains a spirited knight who is always fired up to protect the lands from evil and find the witch that tricked him.
Gill Grunt
(figurine, game screenshot, promotional art, promotional statue via Toy Fair 2011, concept art 1, concept art 2)
Element: Water
Primary Attack: Harpoon Gun
Secondary Attack: Water Cannon
Upgrades include: Triple Harpoon Shot, Water Jet Pack, Water Launcher
Bio: For many years Gill Grunt peacefully lived deep in the oceans until a nasty band of pirates kidnapped his Mermaid girlfriend. He then took to land and sea to search for her, eventually joining the Skylanders to help defend the world from every kind of foe… but especially pirates. Gill Grunt is one fish that never lets evil off the hook.
Stealth Elf
(figurine, promotional art, promotional statue via Toy Fair 2011)
Element: Life
Prism Break
(figurine)
Element: Earth
Stump Smash
(figurine)
Element: Life
Terrafin
(figurine, promotional art)
Chop Chop
(promotional art)
[An orange-red feathered dragon]
(promotional art via Toys 'R' Us - first one)
[A goblin/troll-like creature tossing a dynamite]
(promotional art via Toys 'R' Us - second one)
[A skeleton creature wearing black/red suit, with a red chain as it's tail]
(promotional art via Toys 'R' Us - third last)
[A brown humanoid with blue hair, wearing red glasses, aiming with it's bow]
(figurine)
[A griffin]
(figurine)
[An unknown create consisting of a brown body, wearing a white menacing mask and wielding an axe]
(figurine)
[A blue scaily creature]
(figurine)
[A stone golem with purple crystals]
(game screenshot)

iSO · Feb 14, 2011 3:41 AM

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Aura24 · Feb 14, 2011 5:13 AM

Yay, you posted this here too! big_smile

By the way, where did you find the quote:
"Is this a Spyro game, or what?
This is the first installment of the "Skylanders" series. Activision added Spyro because of it's recognition among all fans out there. Basically, once Spyro has captured newcomers - the company can decide to keep this new series going on, or if enough attention, put him into an entirely new game (The bio created for him proves it)."

iSO · Feb 14, 2011 5:28 AM

@Aura24: Unfortunately, this is based on my instincts on how I approach the info provided from Activision, and a couple of other websites that previewed the game. It doesn't say the game stars Spyro, it says it includes Spyro (check the third link in the references section). Also, if you remove "Spyro's Adventure" from the title, it would only say "Skylanders". And finally they didn't say that this is a reboot, but instead a new universe being created, meaning - a new IP...and yet, in a bio from Spyro, it says that he knows more about the lands of Skyland more than any other creature - which makes this more twisted and confusing. Hmm...

Aura24 · Feb 14, 2011 5:44 AM

So... those questions and answers about the future of Skylanders are false??

iSO · Feb 14, 2011 5:53 AM

@Aura24: I fear that there's a contradiction among one another. The two facts about this is that the game includes Spyro, not stars him, and it's a new universe - but didn't mentioned specifically if it is a reboot or goes back to the main roots of the series.

Aura24 · Feb 14, 2011 5:56 AM

So, the talk about "Skylanders as a re-introduction of Spyro for new gamers" is false as well?

iSO · Feb 14, 2011 5:59 AM

No, Activision hopes to build on the appeal of Spyro. (Source: USAToday)

Aura24 · Feb 14, 2011 6:01 AM

Oh... -_- I mistook it for information you gathered from various links containing news of Skylanders. You think you would've added in that the FAQ Q&A were assumptions...

spyrothedragon · Feb 14, 2011 11:30 AM

i hope it's released in the uk too. it'll be a MAJOR bummer if it isn't.

JakBandiFan · Feb 14, 2011 4:13 PM

It will be released in the UK. Activision wants to milk money out of this series, right?

Anyway, I wonder if the gems and coins will be towards 100% completion in Spyro 1-4 or paying towards upgrades like in AHT.

ontels · Feb 14, 2011 8:50 PM

You should probally remove things that are you opinion and we can have this topic for confirmed infomation.

iSO · Feb 15, 2011 1:45 AM

In response to the small discussion with Aura24 in this topic, I emailed Toys for Bob's Alex Ness (Producer) to answer a couple of questions that I have concerning the game "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure", specifically whether it is a Spyro game or now; here is the reply, and my original message sent to him:

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I asked a couple of specific questions regarding Spyro and this game; but received a rather vague answer. He didn't want to talk about other things because they're releasing new info about the game slowly. I apologize for those who read that particular answer from the FAQ section, thus prompting you guys to want Spyro to go back to the original series after this game. I have updated the FAQ section to reflect that.

JakBandiFan · Feb 15, 2011 7:19 PM

I know that I'm not allowed to voice my opinion on a "Sticky" but I'm going to say what I feel with the least amount of my opinions as possible.

Of course Toys for Bob would be quiet about this. They would only release information on a game when they know that it is going to be in the final game (contradicts ETD in a way). Treasure collecting is back and they confirmed it (you can even see some barrels in the screenshots) because it will be in the final version of the game. Right now, Skylanders is now in an alpha stage.

You should probally remove things that are you opinion and we can have this topic for confirmed infomation.

I just wonder what the gems are going to be used for. 100% completion or buying powerups? Not exactly an opinion. If you're talking about the "milking", I'm just saying that this game cannot just be released in America. Although, I can import the game if necessary because there are no region restrictions on a PS3.

riverhippo · Feb 15, 2011 10:14 PM

I e-mailed Alex Ness, and he wrote me back.

I shared with him my cover art mock and asked him one question: If the game will be available for other consoles besides Wii and the DS.

He responded by thanking me for sharing the jpeg and never answered my question.

So getting information from Toys for Bob is going to be hard it seems.

Aura24 · Feb 16, 2011 7:15 PM

Time to Play looks at Skylanders Spyro's Adventure at Toy Fair 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ysNWYA346E

riverhippo · Feb 16, 2011 9:20 PM

Aura24 wrote:

Time to Play looks at Skylanders Spyro's Adventure at Toy Fair 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ysNWYA346E

"All viable game systems will be a big launch for Activision."

vi·a·ble/ˈvīəbəl/Adjective
1. Capable of working successfully; feasible: "the proposed investment was economically viable."

I guess that answers my question. She worded it kind of strange, though.

If a toy will work from PS3 to Wii and such, that would be cool. Nothing I have ever known has allowed game systems to cross like that.

ontels · Feb 16, 2011 10:32 PM

Werent they talking about mobile phones aswell? Curious.

Jackson117 · Feb 16, 2011 11:03 PM

Im more interested in the remaining Characters...Come on Classic and Legend Characters!

riverhippo · Feb 17, 2011 12:43 AM

ontels wrote:

Werent they talking about mobile phones aswell? Curious.

Unless they do something no has ever done before, I'm guessing any releases of gaming software available for phone isn't really worth mentioning. Just check the last three forums on the main page to see what i mean.

pancakes · Feb 17, 2011 3:46 AM

Has it been confirmed whether or not the game will be available on the PS3 and Xbox 360?

riverhippo · Feb 17, 2011 3:51 AM

pancakes wrote:

Has it been confirmed whether or not the game will be available on the PS3 and Xbox 360?

Aura's video showed a representative of Activision saying it will be available for "viable" game systems. Not sure what that means, or how official that makes it.

Jackson117 · Feb 17, 2011 4:31 AM

Not playing it till I see Spyro franchise characters

Aura24 · Feb 17, 2011 4:32 AM

Picky aren't you? X3

#1 Feb 14, 2011 3:40 AM

All the info you need to know about THIS GAME! (FINALLY UPDATED 9/17)

#2 Feb 14, 2011 3:41 AM

Re: All the info you need to know about THIS GAME! (FINALLY UPDATED 9/17)

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