Holiday Gift Idea for Gamers of All Ages Skylanders Imaginators #Skylanders #Sponsored

​***Disclosure: I received complimentary samples to facilitate my review. All opinions are 100% honest and have not been influenced in any way.***

It's that time of year, everyone! The Holiday shopping season is upon us! (At least it is if you're like me and get an early start to avoid the mad rush of frazzled, last-minute shoppers in December!) 

For the 2016 Holiday season, I will be featuring tons of great gift ideas for babies, kids, men, women, pets, and even for the person who has everything. We all have some of those on our gift lists, don't we? There will even be loads and loads of chances to win many of the gifts I am featuring. How cool is that?! You can check out my 2016 Holiday Gift Guide at any time from now till Christmas. Make sure to check often, as it will be growing by the day! 

Today, I want to talk about something everyone loves: Gaming. 

In my family, we have several gaming fanatics, both young and well....not so young. (Sorry, hubby!) My kids, ages 5,6,and 16, all love gaming, and so does their Daddy. I will be nice and omit his age here. Anyway, one gaming franchise that everyone can agree is amaze-balls would have to be Skylanders. Everyone in my home plays these games, and we're always super excited when something new comes out in the Skylands.

In October, Skylanders released something new, amazing, and fun into their blockbuster line-up: Skylanders Imaginators! The Starter Pack is available for all of your favorite gaming systems, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 1, Xbox 360 and WiiU. How cool is that?! 

There are also a TON of awesome Skylanders add-on characters that will help make your gaming experience even more fun. There are so many ways to enjoy adventures in Skyland, and you can even create your own Skylanders using the new Skylanders Creator App, which allows you to create your characters on the go.

About Skylanders Imaginators:

• Create your very own Skylanders  - choose their body parts, size, catch phrase, powers, colors, theme music and so much more- with Creation Crystals and play through new storyline and gameplay.
• New Skylanders Senseis - 20 new characters and 11 villains including Kaos (FREE with starter pack purchase until October 21 or while supplies last!), and special guest stars Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex.

·        Starter pack ($74.99USD) includes two Sensei characters, one Creation Crystal, Portal of Power and game disc available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 1, Xbox 360 and WiiU.
 
Even more fun with the Skylanders Creator App which includes the ability to: 
·        Create your Skylanders Imaginator on the go with the same functionality in the game
·        Turn your Skylander Imaginator into a 3-D printed, fully playable toy  or a 2-D Imaginator card which is fully playable on the portal of power
·        Print your Skylander Imaginator on to an t-shirt
·        Earn new character parts with timed Imaginite Chests and share your new character via social media

We received an absolutely fantastic assortment of the new Skylanders Imaginators to check out for ourselves. Seriously, my kids almost had a heart attack when they saw how many cool characters they would be able to play in this newest Skylanders game! 

While some of these guys are hidden away for Holiday gifting, we've had a chance to play the game, create new characters, and see what Skylanders Imaginators is all about. 

The story of Skylanders Imaginators takes place long ago when the Ancients used a mysterious power known as “Mind Magic” to create everything in Skylands. With it, they conjured into existence anything that they could imagine!  However, they soon learned that in the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous, and so they sealed it away so that it could never be misused.  After discovering this ancient secret, Kaos has unleashed the power of “Mind Magic” into Skylands once again – and he is using it to create an unstoppable army of Doomlanders, the likes of which have never been seen! Now it’s up to Portal Masters to create Skylanders Imaginators from their own imagination and stop Kaos and his evil Doomlanders before it is too late.  And to help train them, Eon is sending the greatest mystic warriors of all time – the Senseis!

Skylanders Imaginators also introduces two new guest star characters -- Crash Bandicoot and his arch-nemesis Dr. Neo Cortex. They join the lineup of Skylanders Sensei characters as fully-playable toys. The game also gives Crash fans a dedicated level, Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands, that pays homage to be beloved ‘90s video game icon.

Adding to the fun, Skylanders Academy, the new animated comedy-adventure show inspired by the award-winning Skylanders franchise, will debuted on Netflix on October 28.  Jam-packed with humor and heart, Skylanders Academy promises to keep viewers on the edge of their seats with epic action for kids of all ages. This Netflix original series Season 1 will debut 13 episodes in 190 countries, with a second season planned for late 2017.  

First, let me say that the graphics are absolutely breathtaking. The colors are crisp and vibrant, and the animated characters are quite fluid and life-like. Well, as lifelike as you could realistically expect animated characters to be. Check out some screenshots below, and you'll see exactly what I mean! 

How awesome do these animations look!? My kids were beyond delighted with the Skylanders Imaginators game, and they were even more in love with the wide variety of characters available for gameplay. My kids are obsessed with Kaos, especially! They also love using the Creation Crystals to make their own unique characters. 

Check out the Official Skylanders Imaginators: Sensei Overview Trailer below for more about this new Skylanders adventure! 

Overall, we're absolutely thrilled with Skylanders Imaginators. This game is very detailed and involved, and allows gamers to truly become immersed in Skyland like never before. Whether you're battling the enemy or creating new characters, the action never ends with Skylanders Imaginators. In fact, the possibilities for adventure are endless with this great new addition to the Skylanders line-up. 

If you have gamers on your gift lists this season, definitely check out the great new offerings from Skylanders! I guarantee you'll be greeted with nothing but smiles when gifts are unwrapped! 

Connect With Skylanders :

The Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack is available for the suggested retail price of $74.99 on Xbox 360 ™ and Xbox One ™ video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, PlayStation ® 3 and PlayStation ® 4 computer entertainment systems and Nintendo’s Wii U ™ system. Skylanders Imaginators supports all 300+ Skylanders from previous games.

For more information, visit Skylanders.com.

You can also connect with Skylanders on Facebook, on twitter, on Instagram, and on YouTube. 

Be sure to download Skylanders Creator for free via your favorite app stores and start creating your own Skylanders on select iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices.

About the Skylanders ® Franchise
The award-winning, $3 billion Skylanders® franchise has sold through more than 250 million toys 1 since
pioneering the toys-to- life category in 2011 with the debut of Skylanders® Spyro’s Adventure. The game
originated a play pattern that seamlessly bridged physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms. In
2012, Skylanders® Giants further evolved the genre and added LightCore ® characters to the collection of
interaction figures. Skylanders® SWAP Force ™ , which launched in 2013, introduced an all new play
pattern – swapability. In 2014, Skylanders ® Trap Team reversed the magic of bringing toys to life by
allowing players to pull characters out of the digital world into the physical world and became the number
1 kids’ console game globally 1 . Skylanders® SuperChargers launched in 2015 and expanded upon the
franchise’s signature gameplay to introduce vehicles-to- life for the first time.

About Activision Publishing
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading global producer and
publisher of interactive entertainment. Activision maintains operations throughout the world and is a
division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), an S&P 500 company.  More information about Activision
and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com or by following @Activision.