Skylanders: Spyro's Adventures inspired by the love of toys
Skylander: Spyro's Adventure is exactly what it looks like: wish fulfilment for kids who wanted their toys to come to life.
"When we played with our toys as kids, it was all in our imagination and the toy was not remembering anything," Activision's Jared Yeager told Nintendo Difference. "And that’s what we wanted to change with Skylanders.
"The idea was to take the tangible, visceral experience of playing with toys and combine it with the immersive play of videogames and bring it together."
Yeager said the action figures players use with the game "remember" shared experiences, creating a stronger bond between toy and owner.
"As kids, we’ve all talked with toys while playing with them and now it’s like they remember the experiences you had with them, ... when you put it back on the Portal of Power again it’s going to remember all those things you’ve done with them. So, it’s really just a truly magical experience," he said.
Activision and Toys for Bob have already seen demonstrations of this bond in action.
"Our CEO ... brought the game to his kids, [who] are six and eight. They’ve been playing the game at home and then they get in the car to go somewhere and they bring their toys with them," Yeager said.
"They were talking to their toys saying things like 'Wow you did so good today!', it’s like there is this emotional tie.
"That being said, the strongest reaction we had was this girl playing with some other kid and her Eruptor was about to get beat up by some other character so she snatched it off the portal and she was like 'I don’t want him to get hurt!'.
"To see that and to think back to when we were kids, I was like 'you know what, I actually did talk to my toys.'"
Cagily skirting questions of the franchise's future potential, Yeager did seem enthusiastic about the possibility of Skylander: Spyro's adventure on 3DS.
"We’re aiming at all viable platforms so, as details present itself, we will be able to speak further regarding that question," he said of the 3DS.
"But it’s a very good question indeed!"
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventures is due on PC, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 sometime this year.
Thanks, GoNintendo.