Skylanders: ShapeShifters

Skylanders: ShapeShifters was a game developed by Toys For Bob and published by Activision for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Push, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It was the 7th game in the Skylanders line, following Skylanders: Imaginators.
==Development==
In 2022, Toys For Bob remastered the original three Skylanders games for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Polygon, with better textures and 4k graphics. Due to the newfound popularity in Skylanders, Acitivision immedietly ordered a new game in the series, titled Skylanders: ShapeShifters. Toys For Bob used the new Element Engine from the original game to speed up development process.
The newest gimmick are the ShapeShifters, special Skylanders that can change their form at will, letting them use a multitude of different abilities. They use the same magnets and NFC technology from the Swap Force line to let users shapeshift their Skylander in the real world and have that reflect in the game.
===Issues===
Because of Activision not wanting to lose the newfound popularity in Toys To Life, they placed Toys For Bob under extensive crunch and time constraints to get ShapeShifters out as quickly as possible. The result of this was an unfinished, buggy game that should not have been released to the public. However, with the interest in Skylanders waning, and Activision not wanting to lose their "golden opportunity", the game was released anyways.
==Release==
Skylanders: ShapeShifters was panned by critics for being a buggy, unfinished mess. The game would often crash, was very unstable, some new Skylanders weren't recognised by the new Portal of Power, and a very small amount of users reported their consoles could overheat running the game and sometimes corrupt the entire storage device. Toys For Bob made the following statement on June 23rd, 2023:
 "Dear Portal Masters,
 
 We know you aren't happy with Skylanders: ShapeShifters, and we
 take responsibility for this. The game is not up to scratch with
 the other games in our franchise and we're sorry for this. We'll 
 be offering a permanent refund program to everyone who has bought
 the game.
 
 Rest assured, we're going to make this right. Patch 1.1.0 will go
 live tomorrow, and should fix multiple Skylanders not being
 recognised by the Portal of Power and a large number of bugs in 
 the game. Other patches will be released as soon as we can to 
 ensure this is the best Skylanders can be.
 
 Once again, we apologise for rushing this game into stores, and 
 hope that you continue to support the Skylanders brand in the 
 future.
 
 - Paul Reiche"
The game was eventually patched to fix most of the major bugs with the game, but it was too late: the buggy, unfinished release of Skylanders: ShapeShifters had completely killed interest in the Toys For Life brand. The final release of the game, the Nintendo Push port released as a launch title for the system on January 26th, 2024, and gained little to no interest.
==Plot==
Kaos is back, and has once again sent Skylanders out into the real world! Its now up to the Portal Master to send these Skylanders back to the Skylands to fight Kaos and newley formed Army of Kaos: a number of shape-shifting characters who pose as multiple forms of Kaos, often calling back to previous entries, like Giants and Swap Force.
==Features==
As previously described, the game's gimmick were the ShapeShifters. For example, a Skylander could be a swordfighter, then Shapeshift into a ninja. These Skylanders came in larger packaging and contained a base for their element and three extra characters to place onto this base. The real world change would be reflected in the game, though your Skylander would retain its name, level and element as it is still the same character.
Another less-liked feature brought into the game builds on the Switch port of Skylanders: Imaginators. In that game, users could scan their Skylander on the NFC reader on the Joy-Con or Pro Controller and have that Skylander digitally stored to switch to later. This feature is kept in Skylanders: ShapeShifters (now in every release of the game, not just the Nintendo Switch), but now allows a user to buy a locked Skylander for their MSRP in the Digital Vault. While this seems like a good idea on paper, when the game asks you if you're out of Skylanders, it will let you buy a Skylander directly from the failure screen to keep going, even going as far to recommend you a Skylander to beat that particular level. Many users saw this as the game trying to force you to use microtransactions to beat the game and was another reason the game was slammed in people's reviews. The recommendation and ability to buy Skylanders straight from the Game Over screen was later removed in a patch, but buying Skylanders in the Digital Vault was not removed.
Category:Nintendo Push Games
Category:Skylanders (series)
Category:Skylanders Games
Category:Toys To Life Games
Category:Action Games
Category:Nintendo Switch Games
Category:PlayStation 5 (erictom333) Games