Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure - boxed - PS3

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is a new instalment in the Spyro the Dragon universe and differs from previous games in that it is linked to a new peripheral device and a range of action figures. It's part of a new sub-series within the franchise called Skylanders. To play the game, players need to connect the included Portal of Power peripheral to the device the game is being played on. The Starter Pack, the standard version, includes the game, three physical action figures (Spyro, Trigger Happy and Gill Grunt), a collector's poster, trading cards, a sticker sheet and a set of web codes. In total there are over 35 characters, but these can only be unlocked by purchasing additional packs that include the action figures. In this way, the game's DLC is only provided through the action figure and cannot be unlocked in-game without physically placing it on the Portal of Power and having its RFID chip scanned.

The game centres on Spyro and his Skylander friends, who must defeat Kaos, the evil Portal Master. It plays as a third-person action game, and each character has different abilities. The characters are divided into eight groups (classes) linked to the eight elements in the game: Air, Water, Earth, Tech, Undead, Magic, Fire and Life, with four characters in each element. Each character has two primary attacks, both of which can be upgraded using coins collected in the game. As experience increases, new abilities are also unlocked, which can be acquired by discovering certain hats, and eventually a third attack. Among the toys there are randomly inserted gold, platinum and pearl versions of certain characters.

All upgrades, coins or hats are not saved in the game itself, but directly on the toy via the Portal of Power. The toys are also cross-platform; any information stored on a toy can be played on any device running the game. The Portal of Power isn't interchangeable between consoles and PC in every version, but it is in some. If a character dies, the level must be restarted, a new character must be brought in, or the player must wait around twenty minutes before it is revived. A second player can join the game and play co-operatively by placing an additional toy on the Portal of Power. The game offers a main adventure that can be played solo or in co-op mode. In addition, Skylanders offers a player-versus-player mode in which players can compete against each other in arenas full of traps, weapons and obstacles.