Today the sixth game in the Skylanders franchise was revealed. It is called Skylanders Imaginators.

Skylanders Imaginators Logo

(If you look closely, you'll notice they added the Light and Dark Elements to the logo this year.)

The main characters in this game are the Sensei. There will be:

  • 20 Skylanders Sensei
  • 11 Villain Sensei

Additionally, there will be (at least) 10 Creation Crystals. What are these for?

Well, in Skylanders Imaginators you will be in charge of creating your very own Skylanders. You can save your creation to a Creation Crystal (of the appropriate Element) so it will be available to use whenever or wherever you choose.

Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack

In typical fashion we have a new Starter Pack. The Starter Pack will be available for:

It looks like they're dropping the not only the Wii, but the 3DS from the lineup this year.

This year's Starter Pack will include:

Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack PS4

They have announced that there will be a Dark Edition Starter Pack once again. They have not officially announced the contents of this pack, but thanks to IGN we have some idea.

Fans can pre-order the a special Skylanders Imaginators Dark Edition, which includes three exclusive black and silver variant designs of new Senseis, three Creation Crystals and more. ~ IGN

Dark King Pen

UPDATE: The contents of the Dark Edition Starter Pack have been confirmed with this GameStop listing.

Skylanders Imaginators Dark Edition Contents

So the Dark Edition Starter Pack will include:

  • Dark Master King Pen
  • Dark Golden Queen
  • Dark Wolfgang
  • Fire Creation Crystal
  • Life Creation Crystal
  • Dark Creation Crystal

Sensei

The Sensei include both Skylanders and “reformed Villains”. In addition to having an Element assigned to them, each Sensei will also have a Battle Class.

There are ten different Battle Classes which include:

  • Smasher
  • Knight
  • Ninja
  • Bazooker
  • Quickshot
  • Sorcerer
  • Brawler
  • Sentinel
  • Swashbuckler
  • Bowslinger

As Sensei these characters they will gain access to a special Sky-Chi ability which is the ultimate super-move in their Battle Class.

Obviously we don't have the full roster yet, but we know King Pen (Brawler) and Tri-Tip (Smasher).

Master King PenTri Tip

Then on the Villain side we know about Golden Queen (Sorcerer).

Golden Queen

No other Villain Sensei have officially been announced, but in an article on Time.com they seem to hint at a pair of former Villains that we may be seeing again.

The newly playable villains are Skylanders, but darker and edgier. “I think that’s part of why they’re so appealing,” says Reiche of the game’s reformed do-badders. “Some of them are crazy, like the Pain Yatta with his giant candy axe, or the werewolf (Wolfgang) with his heavy metal harp.

Creation Crystals

The Creation Crystals are the pieces that will allow you to create and eventually play as Skylanders of your own imagination.

You can customize every part of the characters you create. Everything from their appearance (as you would expect) to their powers and theme song (which you might not have expected).

Skylanders Imaginators gives players immense possibilities — including appearance, powers, abilities, names, catchphrases, musical themes and much more — to create the wildest Skylanders imaginable. The amazing depth of the creation system could allow for more than a googol distinctive characters.

I think it's safe to say that they options are endless and you will never have enough time to try them all.

The Creation Crystals will light up when placed on the Portal. For long-time fans, this is quite like the LightCore technology we last saw in Skylanders SWAP Force.

Each Creation Crystal can only house one creation at a time and your creation must match the Element of the Crystal.

For this reason we know that there will be a minimum of 10 different Creation Crystals as we need one for each Element. It remains to be seen if there will be different styles of Creation Crystals or variants or maybe even Crystals with pre-loaded Creations.

All in all the functionality of the Creations Crystals is fairly similar to that of the Traps from Skylanders Trap Team.

Master and Apprentice

Aside from being amazing fighters, the Sensei will also function as Masters who will train your newly created Skylanders.

The Sensei will do things like help your new Skylanders increase their Level Cap and teach them Secret Techniques/Powers.

Prices and Release Dates

The prices are what we've come to expect from the Skylanders games.

Standard Starter Pack – $74.99
Dark Edition Starter Pack – $99.99

Single Pack Sensei – $14.99
Single Pack Creation Crystal – $9.99

No big surprises there.

The surprise actually comes in the release date.

The dates have been pushed back to mid-October like the first few games. But what I find interesting is that as of now, the US will be the last to get Skylanders Imaginators.


October 13, 2016 (Australia/New Zealand)
October 14, 2016 (Europe)
October 16, 2016 (North America)