Admittedly, I haven’t spent a ton of time playing Skylanders. What little I have played, has been demos in a store, and at a friend’s house. From what I have played, however, I can tell you I’ve fallen in love with this adorable game. What excites me the most about this game however, are the little figures one uses to change characters in the game. These serve a dual role: Not only to change characters within Skylanders but neat little figures for us collector nerds out there. I got to thinking though, and I can’t be the only one to have this thought, if Skylanders proves successful enough, what doors does this open for gaming?
A few games came to mind instantly that could take this idea, and really run with it: Pokemon, Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers, and Madden. Yes, it’s a list that shares almost nothing in common with one another, except that the game is playable with creatures/players/things that one collects/unlocks/wins in game play. In Pokémon, obviously you can collect Pokémon that you can then use in other battles. This is the obvious comparison to the concept of Skylanders. In MTG cards can be won via battles with CPU opponents, and downloaded is DLC. Madden (and FIFA as well) offers the Madden Ultimate Team, where you can build your own football team via card packs that contain players (both modern and legendary), boosters, uniforms, stadiums, and other items. Players can either pay real money to buy packs, or win coins through online play which can also be used to purchase new packs. In all three scenarios, collectables are the key to your game play.
Pokémon is a well-established franchise. Most of us played some form of this game, whether it was when we were younger to those who still play the newer version with umpteen million new Pokémon. Whereas Skylanders features 32 different creatures to be able to purchase, the original Pokémon series itself boasts around 150 Pokemon! The idea of putting figures on a platform, in order to use them in game could easily transfer over into the Pokémon world. Give that the Skylanders figures also store in game data, the Pokémon you have purchased could store things such as stats, upgrades, evolutions (Pikachu to Raichu, for example) or whatever else Nintendo would see fit to add to this potential game.
However, this concept of interactive physical collectables is applicable to other styles of games as well. Both Magic the Gathering and Madden Ultimate Team mode use cards as their items that you use to play in the game (As well as the Pokémon card game, which is also owned by Wizards of the Coast). In the case of MTG , those cards, which are assembled into predetermined packs, are often stale, and do not offer the player any sort of real control over the decks they build. One cannot go in an simply edit their deck to use 5 of card X and only 2 of card Y, but instead are at the mercy of the preset decks that come in the game. The only real changes one can make are the cards that you can either download or unlock through battles with CPU opponents. In the real world, MTG offers players the ability to customize decks to their hearts content, and opens up for some intriguing and creative ways for players to defeat their opponents, often combining color or elements together into a pack. In order to combat this almost robotic approach to MTG, the Skylanders concept could allow players to use their physical decks in the actual video game. This would also allow Wizards of the Coast to expand interest in the MTG series, as to successfully cross both the video games with the physical game.
This same idea could also be used in the MUT mode in the Madden games. Players could buy their collectable packs at any local retailer, and activate them in game. This could be a big boost for a trading card company like Topps, Donruss, or Upper Deck, which have seen interest in their industry die since the mid 1990s. Not only would this make collecting cards be fun again, as well as a profitable business venture for EA, but would also allow players to trade cards with friends, and move those cards with greater ease in order to play a game. Madden could go further, and offer these cards to be recharged (player cards only last a certain amount of games before you have to “re-sign” a player) at a local retailer or even through PSN or Xbox Live. I, like many people I know, like having physical versions of things, and sometimes I do miss sports card collecting.
This notion of using cards in a video game was once used by Yu-Gi-Oh, mainly in their Game Boy Advance games. Players were able to enter in a code on the bottom of their trading card, and use it in the Yu-Gi-Oh video game on the GBA. This same principle could be applicable for all three above mentioned games.
Potentially, this notion could be a hard sell in this economy. Many people, especially families, are cutting back expenses and gift shopping allowances due to the economic conditions our country currently faces. I know a lot of gamers aren’t quite buying as many games as they normally would, often waiting months for AAA titles to go on sale. Asking gamers to shell out for a $60.00 plus extra stuff is already causing a lot of problems in the gaming community. Making these purchases not necessary mandatory, but helpful in the full game experience, could help ease the tension in that regard. In the case of DLC with games like Magic The Gathering and Madden, those who were already going to buy those digitally, wouldn’t have any problem purchasing them physically anyways. Nintendo could also use the selling point of giving you a base amount of Pokémon, and making others available for purchase rather than forcing you to purchase two versions of the same game just to catch 30 extra Pokémon.
Another likely problem with this idea is that companies would use this to turn a profit, making the game unplayable without purchasing new figures. Gamers everywhere have already complained on numerous occasions about how game developers have used DLC to their financial advantage, rather than using it as a way to expand a game (One of the worst of these examples being the on disc multiplayer mode for Resident Evil 5, which had to be purchased). Admittedly, if this were to catch on, this very well could be the path some game company could chose to take. However, the subsequent backlash from the gaming community would more than likely deter a company from willingly pissing off its consumer base that bad.
Skylanders is an exciting experiment in gaming that could open some serious doors to other styles of games. Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, and Madden are just examples of a plethora of styles of games that could use physical purchases for in game playing. Anything from RPGs to FPS could take advantage of this technology, and use it within game play. I can only imagine developers are keeping a close watch to see if Activision is successful with this game. In the meantime, I’m sure many gamers (myself included) can’t wait to get their paws on Skylanders.
