Skylanders Imaginators

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 46 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 46
  3. Negative: 16 out of 46
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  1. EasyGamerBoi
    Jun 10, 2021
    6
    I have a LONG history with Skylanders, I’ve been playing since the first one came out and have been smitten ever since. Eventually collecting every toy got to be a bit much on my adult wallet so I took a break for a few years after Superchargers came out, so I never got to play this last Skylander game. But with the lovely benefit of pandemic unemployment money last year when everythingI have a LONG history with Skylanders, I’ve been playing since the first one came out and have been smitten ever since. Eventually collecting every toy got to be a bit much on my adult wallet so I took a break for a few years after Superchargers came out, so I never got to play this last Skylander game. But with the lovely benefit of pandemic unemployment money last year when everything was shut down, I finally completed my Imaginators collection, leaving me with every skylander that has come out! So after 5 years, is the game any good or is there a reason there hasn’t been another one since? Well... yes and no. Imaginators is a decent enough game, I know it got a lot of flack for the microtransactions (it was only a matter of time with this series) but I never felt the need to pay anything extra since you unlock so much stuff throughout the course of the game. For as much fun as the Imaginators & other new skylanders are to play, you can tell very early on there is MAJOR franchise fatigue going on. As with any yearly franchise, this was the 6th skylander game to come out in a row & you can tell the yearly releases have taken a toll on the quality of this entry. Right away the graphics & character models don’t really look that great & I played this on a PS4! The physical toys can look better at times. The moment to moment gameplay doesn’t feel as good as it used to either, maybe it was my younger brain thinking it was all these years, but after replaying the rest of the series a lil over a year ago, it’s definitely a problem I noticed growing with most of the sequels & seems to have reached its boiling point with Imaginators. Even the jumping doesn’t feel all that good and with some precise jumps needed in certain levels, it can get annoying. I’m tempted to say this is probably the longest and toughest skylander game of them all, don’t get me wrong the game is still very easy, but compared to the rest of the series, I actually lost a couple of skylanders in some fights lol. Also, right before the end of the game there’s this EIGHT MISSION FETCH QUEST for absolutely no reason other than padding this long Skylander game out even more. It was incredibly frustrating even though each of the missions are fairly quick, some of them take place in the exact same map with minor differences. Doing the same mission 3 times for the same goal is beyond tedious & I don’t see why this part of the game wasn’t just another level. Easily among the worst sections in any skylander game, maybe even the worst. Imaginators does things right though, the humor is surprisingly on point for a kids game, although not EVERY conversation has to end with a joke guys. Kaos is still an endearing villain even though his goals remain the same, Invader Zim’s voice will always be music to my ears! It’s a shame this ended up being the last Skylander game since it just kinda... ends abruptly. The final cutscene ends and you’re thrown back into the game, no credits or fanfare or anything lol. A rushed feeling is all over this game & some of the sequels before it and it’s at the point where it can’t be ignored. Skylanders also brought Crash Bandicoot out of retirement for this game and.. it’s ok? Maybe they just put him and Neo Cortex in as a nod to the remake of the original Crash trilogy they were working on at the time, but I guess we can thank the people behind Skylanders for bringing Spyro & Crash to their well deserved renaissance that they’re experiencing today. The game has its moments & I LOVED creating my own Imaginators, but can’t recommend it for much else, especially as a huge fan who’s played all the other games, watched the surprisingly fantastic Netflix show & thought SWAP Force was the weakest entry, Imaginators may have tied it for that title. Maybe in a decade or two when the inevitable revival of the Toys to Life genre comes, we can get a truly amazing send off or even a new start for Skylanders. Just please stop making game releases an annual thing lol. It never ends well.… Expand
  2. Memborg01
    Oct 17, 2016
    9
    Best entry since Swap Force. I have had some problems with the game design and sloppy coding of Trap Team which made me decide not to buy Superchargers.

    Now I decided to return and try out Imaginators and overall it is great. The in a short review: If you know the Skylanders games, the levels will of course be different but not much out of the ordinary. They are well designed and the    Best entry since Swap Force. I have had some problems with the game design and sloppy coding of Trap Team which made me decide not to buy Superchargers.

    Now I decided to return and try out Imaginators and overall it is great.

    The in a short review: If you know the Skylanders games, the levels will of course be different but not much out of the ordinary. They are well designed and the story feels more compelling than previously. Creation works great, The M.A.P. is a welcome feature and overall this is a game worth buying.

    In more details

    The story and cutscenes integrate really well into the game, making the basic characters (Spyro, Stealth Elf, etc.) a more integral part of the storytelling which works great. The story and cutscenes gets my attention a lot more than previous entries.
    Also Kaos, while still sort of an unintelligent villain, feels like he is a lot more of a threat this time. I can take him a lot more serious which does a lot for the overall feel af the game. Having a good villain means a lot.

    I will not go so much into creating your own character. Its an incredible feature which has already got its attention. There is tons of loot to unlock and you can expect that it may be a bit of a grind fest.

    What I will like to mention is the M.A.P. which is the world map that has tons of things to unlock. It feels vast, and there are lots of things and places to explore.
    The M.A.P. serves as the level selection but there are also elemental gates, ambushes where you will enter a combat area, and lots of hidden treasures and places.
    The M.A.P. feature is very welcome and a feature that I have missed since I played my first Skylanders game (I came in at Swap Force).

    The levels are not out of the ordinary, but this time they do not lock things away so you have to buy new characters. Instead there are things on the map you can unlock by having more characters and also in the creation part.
    I have really enjoyed every level so far and I will enjoy the rest, I am sure.

    The only thing that may seem a bit out of place is that you can buy Mystery Chests, for real money, that will give you in game gear. There is no need for buying these since all can be unlocked in game. The digital Mystery Chests are the same as the blind bagged chests except you can choose what kind of chest you get.

    Overall Skylanders Imaginators is the best Skylanders game to the date. My favorite part, besides creating your own character, is the M.A.P. and the fact that there is more to do and explore after completing the game. That is to me a winning factor    … Expand
  3. lokilaufeypurr
    Oct 17, 2016
    9
    I am going to start this review saying I have played all of the Skylanders games except for Superchargers which I skipped since I didnt want a game based on racing. I liked Skylanders simply for its simple yet addicting platforming. So when Imaginators was announced I was thrilled it went back to the same tried and true platformer it is.

    If you have played Skylanders before, expect    I am going to start this review saying I have played all of the Skylanders games except for Superchargers which I skipped since I didnt want a game based on racing. I liked Skylanders simply for its simple yet addicting platforming. So when Imaginators was announced I was thrilled it went back to the same tried and true platformer it is.

    If you have played Skylanders before, expect about the same. There is an increase in mini games, which I personally added a more fun lighthearted break up to the similar story we have all seen before.

    The Imaginators is a great but not crucial part to the series. I personally love character creation and fell in love with creating my character. the only down side of the creation is that the class you picked is locked to the crystal, you CANNOT reset the class. Beware buying crystals....they are missing the foil from the bottom so you can use the crystals in box.....Throughout the game you unlock armor sets that both are cosmetic and have some boosts not unlike how hats were throughout the game series. Now, micro transactions ARE available in game via your respective store. but you do NOT need to buy them in order to complete the game or boost your character. you get a ton of loot boxes in game that unlock a multitude of items. do not ignore the mini games, they do give you these loot boxes as well. I will reference a previous review saying Imaginators are weak and useless without the gear. That is not the case. Some classes are harder to get used to than others, and i think that is the difficulty factor that can lead to people thinking they are useless and underpowered. even without gear my magic bird ninja wiped the board with enemies. Within an hour of playing the game I was getting epic and ultimate gear which provide some decent boosts to the characters as well.

    Like all skylanders games there are various difficulty levels, and areas locked behind sensi's which may lead you to purchase more sensei's if you are a completionist. if you are not I think you will be satisfied with what Imaginators brings to the table. Its a nice twist to the old system that provides some hours of amusement for those addicted to creating characters.

    So in the end, it's the same Skylanders we have all come to know and love. Yes you can buy all the crystals and figures and adventure packs. Do you need to, to enjoy the game? No. Just playing with the starter pack for about six hours yesterday was a blast while I wait for my sensei's to come in today. Definitely a good time, especially if you are familiar with previous installments of the game. So give it a shot!    … Expand
  4. FreedomFighters
    Mar 4, 2018
    4
    The sixth "Skylanders" game brought with it the ability to create your very own Skylander, as well as the long-awaited return of classic PlayStation icon Crash Bandicoot, but along with it also came rumors of the series taking a break. And sure enough, with declining sales and lower ratings on the television show "Skylanders Academy," Activision announced that there would be no new mainThe sixth "Skylanders" game brought with it the ability to create your very own Skylander, as well as the long-awaited return of classic PlayStation icon Crash Bandicoot, but along with it also came rumors of the series taking a break. And sure enough, with declining sales and lower ratings on the television show "Skylanders Academy," Activision announced that there would be no new main series game in 2017. However, I nevertheless walked into the 2016 entry, "Skylanders: Imaginators" pretty intrigued, because sometimes a decline in sales may just be a result of franchise fatigue, and not the result of a drop in quality. Little did I expect, however, that "Skylanders: Imaginators" would be a major drop in quality compared to the previous games.
    There's very little good to say about "Skylanders: Imaginators," other than that it retains a few of the standard things you'd expect the "Skylanders" series to have: some pretty visuals, decent music, and accessible gameplay for the younger audience it is geared for. So, at the very least, the game, as a whole, is functional, and it controls as smoothly as the other games in the franchise. And, at the very least, it is nice to see that some of the old "Skylanders," like Stealth Elf and Jet-Vac, actually play a role in this game's story.
    All of those positives, however, are completely destroyed by the game's laundry list of problems. For starters, the game simply doesn't have enough to feel like a change of pace from "Superchargers." Instead, it just feels like your standard "Skylanders" game, to an unfortunately bland degree. Where the other games felt like more polished versions of the last, with enough small changes to keep them interesting, I can't even called this a "more polished" version of "Superchargers" when it literally just feels like a copy-and-paste of that game, even with the "new" minigame "Creation Clash," which is "Skystones" from "Skylanders: Giants" to a literal tee. Hell, I'll go as far as to say that it doesn't even feel like a copy-and-paste because the gameplay is so dialed-back compared to the last few titles. There's no new content for old Skylanders, the game is completely incompatible with old Traps, and while the "racing" minigame is still there, your old vehicles are inherently useless in the context of the main story mode. The gameplay also begins to feel very repetitive in the boss fights, which all follow pretty much the exact same format, even on the incredibly anticlimactic final boss fight. Oh, and if you're like me and you thought "Superchargers" underutilized it's concept, get ready, because "Imaginators" is even worse in regards to actually utilizing its "gimmick." I almost forgot the game introduced a new concept because of how little of a role the "Imaginators" actually had in this game. Even though the game gives you a lot of chests filled with collection tools, it's not difficult to run through the entire game without creating a single Skylander. Trust me, I did it. And finally, while I liked that the story gave us characters from the older games, the fact that the stakes really weren't high at all this time around (especially after "Superchargers"), and the lack of a really satisfying ending really ruined the game's extremely bland story.
    I'm sure you can tell from that novel that I did not like this game, and it's unfortunate, because as a "Skylanders" fan, I don't want to see the series end with a whimper, but unfortunately, the damage is done: beyond the declining toy/merchandise sales and lower TV ratings, "Skylanders: Imaginators" is by far the weakest game in the entire franchise, and I can't even recommend this to the most die-hard of "Skylanders" fans. If you're a young child, that's different, but if you're not, I'm gonna suggest that you pass on this one. It's a shame to see it end like this, but leave it to Activision to completely destroy another novel concept like they did with "Guitar Hero" and "Tony Hawk."
    Final rating: 4 out of 10 "Bad"    … Expand
  5. NotActiv_YT
    Nov 2, 2020
    9
    Personally I really enjoyed the Skylanders series when I was younger and as I’ll admit they got worse and worse as the years went by, this game definitely had potential, it only didn’t succeed because the Toys To Life Genre had already been killed by frequent launches of Skylanders, Disney Infinity and the recent LEGO Dimensions
  6. clanky9
    Apr 21, 2021
    5
    This game is just okay i enjoyed more others. They didnt improve almost anything since the first game.
  7. NoisyHeretic
    Jan 5, 2021
    2
    Skylanders Imaginators is by far the worst entry in the series, as well as the most monetized. It's no wonder this game was the last real game in the series, considering how much they screwed up with it. The gaming is filled with tedious puzzles, not actually challenging puzzles mind you, they're just so boring to do and take so long to finish. It's obvious these puzzles were made to padSkylanders Imaginators is by far the worst entry in the series, as well as the most monetized. It's no wonder this game was the last real game in the series, considering how much they screwed up with it. The gaming is filled with tedious puzzles, not actually challenging puzzles mind you, they're just so boring to do and take so long to finish. It's obvious these puzzles were made to pad out the play time, considering how short the levels are in the actual game. What's even worse is the fact that all the characters explain the puzzles to you, every single time, even the most obvious ones. Yes the game is for kids, but kids don't need to be lectured on how to push blocks every minute. Combat encounters in the game are also scarce. With the first games, combat encounters were around every corner, but in this one, there are about three major combat encounters and one doomlander fight per level. This is garbage when you realize skylanders is supposed to be a baby's first beat 'em up, considering your spending more time doing tedious puzzles rather than fighting crazy magical goons. Another thing is this games insane level of childishness. Skylander games were always childish, no argument there, but they never felt this childish. The most embarrassing parts of it was the plot point of a god damn guacamole monster, which not only felt so dumb and childish compared to other more interesting and compelling boss monsters in the series, but was just unfunny and dare I say cringe-inducing. Not to mention other cringy things like the god-forsaken "selfie-stages" which felt so out of touch even when it first came out. One last dumb thing was the area called the golden arcade, which is actually just a casino. Kids aren't stupid toys for bob, they know what a Casino is, and its even more when you have a gambling system in the game. That's right this game has a loot box system to help kids get parts for their imaginators by gambling real world money in a hope they'll have a chance at getting a really cool part. Absolutely disgusting especially when this game is marketed for god damn six year-olds. This game is riddled with the other problems in the games, which if your familiar with the series you already know. It's a shame the games had to die like this, they could've grown up and matured with their audience like other continuing series do, but instead they got even more childish, to the point where this game feels like an add for the **** tv show. The only saving grace for this series is the rumor that activision is planning a more mature but still characteristically childish reboot for the series, which I would be on board with. The success of amiibo still show that there is hope for the toy game fad to be more than a fad, or at least for skylanders to out live the fad, and I want skylanders to be something I can go back to with out feeling like a man child for doing so. This game has potential, and has a fully grown, college-age audience it can appeal to. But until the series returns, this game is the bullet that killed this series, and I can't forgive it for that.… Expand
  8. The_only_Drobot
    Sep 2, 2021
    6
    I enjoyed this game, but I have my gripes with it:
    1. Cutscenes: very repetitive, way to many of them, mostly unskippable, ruin your emersion and the flow of the game
    2. Balancing: Some of the enemies have way too much health and hit way too hard, a way of getting more money out of you, because you basically need to buy additional figures Otherwise the game is fine and I've played    I enjoyed this game, but I have my gripes with it:
    1. Cutscenes: very repetitive, way to many of them, mostly unskippable, ruin your emersion and the flow of the game
    2. Balancing: Some of the enemies have way too much health and hit way too hard, a way of getting more money out of you, because you basically need to buy additional figures

    Otherwise the game is fine and I've played through it multiple times    … Expand
  9. Skylayy
    Nov 25, 2021
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Este jogo e muito legal eu amooooooooo ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️… Expand
  10. QuagsireV
    May 11, 2022
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Very good game. The gimmick of this one is creating your own skylanders, which would be a dream for children. There's a few repetitive things like the cards and the ship levels, but it's a kid's game. There's also a few extra things to do at the end of the game unlike some other installments. Sure, it may get expensive, but I recommend it for your kids.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

71
#71 Best PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 49 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 41 out of 49
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 49
  3. Negative: 0 out of 49
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2017
    80
    Imaginators puts a Diablo twist on Skylanders. Pure fun! [13/2016, p.61]
  2. Games.cz
    Jan 4, 2017
    60
    Compared to the last year installment the Skylanders Imaginators is a cautious step toward the inevitable change. But the game itself rather stagnates due to the repetition of the same tricks.
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  3. games(TM)
    Dec 18, 2016
    70
    A whimsical evolution of the beat-'em-up. [Issue#181, p.83]
    Read full review
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