News Articles
Monday12th May 2014
News Final Skylanders SWAP Force Figure, Doom Stone, Makes Début At Toys "R" Us On 13th May
A solid finale
Portal Masters in the US should plan on clearing some space for a final addition to their Skylanders SWAP Force army, when the mighty Doom Stone arrives this week. From Tuesday, 13th May, Toys "R" Us stores nationwide will be the first to stock this glorious golem in limited quantities, which hopefully shouldn't result in too many...
Thursday2nd Jan 2014
News Wii U Skylanders Bundle Deal Heading to GameStop This Weekend
A tempter for U.S. shoppers
With the festive shopping season now gone, retailers begin the challenging task of making us all spend even more money, after so many splashed the cash at the end of 2013. GameStop has sounded the New Year retail desperation klaxon with its first run of promotions for 2014, while also declaring this to be the "Year of...
Saturday30th Nov 2013
News Wii U Wins "Deals Award" For Being One Of The Best Kids Items This Holiday Season
Black Friday is brighter than it sounds
Despite the fact that the launch of Super Mario 3D World in Japan posted sales figures not quite on par with expectations, it seems the console is gaining traction as a go-to gift this holiday season. In addition to opinions beginning to emerge that Wii U could be a big
Thursday31st Oct 2013
News Just Dance And Skylanders Wii U Bundles Coming To Australia And New Zealand
Mario & Luigi Premium Pack also on the way Down Under
Australia and New Zealand may have missed out on the limited edition Zelda-themed Wii U bundle, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Nintendo Australia has today announced it will bulk up its Wii U offerings with two new value packs - just in time for the holiday period. Consumers who...
Friday25th Oct 2013
News Nintendo Announces Skylanders SWAP Force Wii U Hardware Bundle
Time to swap out that Wii?
Nintendo certainly appears to be gearing up to tempt potential Wii U owners this Holiday, with a variety of bundles joining upcoming releases to try and win over the market. Nintendo of America has now announced another option to tempt gamers in the region, teaming up with Activision to offer a Skylanders SWAP Force...
Monday21st Oct 2013
News Sonic Can't Quite Dash Into the UK All-Format Top 10
Both Pokémon titles drop below the multi-format Skylanders SWAP Force
UKIE has issued its update of the latest comings and goings in the UK software all-format charts, and there are some positives and negatives for Nintendo to consider. At the higher end of the scale we have Pokémon X & Pokémon Y in fourth and fifth place respectively, both...
Monday14th Oct 2013
Video Nintendo Shows Off 10 Minutes of Skylanders: SWAP Force on Wii U
Smash and swap
While Nintendo gamers keen on new Wii U software may be contemplating Sonic Lost World this week, it's not the only major release gracing Nintendo's system. Another is Activision's potential behemoth Skylanders SWAP Force, the latest in the toy-collecting action-adventure franchise. It'll also arrive on 3DS and Wii, of course, but...
Monday7th Oct 2013
News Toys "R" Us Confirms Exclusive Range of Skylanders SWAP Force Characters
Legendary Grim Creeper has a cool name
When you combine a video game with toys that bring characters to life, you get monster profits. You also get plenty of promotions from one of the world's most recognisable toy store brands, and Toys "R" Us is continuing its record of promoting and gaining exclusives for the Skylanders series with some special...
Sunday22nd Sep 2013
Developer Interview Eric Carter on Skylanders: SWAP Force for Wii U
Producer discusses UI differences and developing on Wii U
At the time of writing, the launch of Skylanders: SWAP Force, the third instalment in the highly successful Skylanders game series, is just a few short weeks away. In preparation for its release, we were generously invited to tour Vicarious Visions headquarters in Albany, NY to learn a little...
Saturday21st Sep 2013
Hands On Skylanders: SWAP Force
We visit Vicarious Visions HQ to check out Skylanders: SWAP Force
It’s difficult to believe that the Skylanders franchise — a series that has sold millions of copies worldwide and has spawned a multitude of sequels and spin-offs — is only just turning two years old. Since the 2011 release of the series debut, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure,...
Tuesday17th Sep 2013
News Publishers Reveal Sales Figures for Skylanders and Disney Infinity
Activision and Disney prepare themselves for a festive battle
The war between the two major players in the figurine beaming adventure game genre has been raging lately what with the release of Disney Infinity last month. Naturally, the ambitious project takes a lot of influence from Activision's Skylanders series and according to Disney Interactive...
Thursday12th Sep 2013
News 2013 Skylanders Champion Walks Away With All 56 Swap Force Figures
Quite a prize
At an event in London’s Olympic Park, James Tubb (9) was crowned Official Skylanders Champion. He not only wins the crown but also every Swap Force figure. Nice haul! The Official Skylanders championships started out in various UK regions in GAME stores. Each of these qualifier events called Skylanders fans to come into the store...
Thursday22nd Aug 2013
Video This Exclusive Skylanders Swap Force Footage Shows More Characters in Action
Family Gamer takes a look
Skylanders Swap Force is getting closer, and it seemed that Activision’s retail partners had pretty much let the cat out of the bag on most characters. However, at Gamescom in Cologne we discovered there were still a few surprises. Very kindly, Activision gave us an exclusive first look at a new Skylanders Swap Force...
Friday19th Jul 2013
News Retailer Listings and Comic-Con Reveal New Figures for Skylanders Swap Force
Prepare your bank accounts
Skylanders Swap Force, the latest entry in the hugely successful toy-based Activision series, is getting ever closer to its October release on Wii U, Wii, 3DS and other consoles. As it approaches we can look forward to details on what new figures will be available and in what waves, though it seems that a combination of...
Tuesday25th Jun 2013
Video Skylanders Swap Force Really Lives Up To Its Name
Family Gamer's Andy Robertson gets swap-happy
The clue’s in the name right? Skylanders Swap Force is an interesting proposition this year because of all that switching and swapping you can do with the new figures. What we hadn’t appreciated was quite how varied the new mixed up creations could be, or how much they would feel like fully fledged...
Monday17th Jun 2013
First Impressions Skylanders Swap Force
Family Gamer's Andy Robertson goes hands-on at E3
The head to head nature of Skylanders Swap Force and Disney Infinity meant that E3 was always going to be a show down. With Disney buying up an impressive amount of floor space and advertising, Activision responded with more information, novelty and freebies than we’ve seen for previous Skylanders...
Saturday8th Jun 2013
News Activision Bringing Skylanders Swap Force And Call of Duty: Ghosts To E3
"This is obviously a big year"
There has been a lot of confusion surrounding Call of Duty: Ghosts, the latest in Activision's long-running franchise. Nobody seems to definitively know if it's coming to Wii U or not. When it was announced in early May, the publisher did not mention Nintendo's home console, however, since then several media outlets...
Friday1st Mar 2013
News Wireless Wii Portal Inspires Skylanders Chess Invention
There's a use for those old Portals of Power after all
As you will have no doubt read, Skylanders Swap Force will require a new Portal and Starter Pack this year. Family Gamer TV owner and occasional Nintendo Life contributor Andy Robertson asked his kids what they should do with their old Portal of Power, and they came up with a version of Chess...
Tuesday19th Feb 2013
News Activision: New Skylanders Portal Of Power Down To "New Functionality"
Still works with the old figures, though
Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision has spoken to Family Gamer and given a few more details about Skylanders Swap Force, which is due out on Wii, Wii U and 3DS later this year. One of the hot topics is the new Portal of Power, which is name for the USB portal that you plug into your console to access the toy...
Friday8th Feb 2013
Activision's latest money-spinner takes shape
As we wrote earlier this week, Activision has announced the next game in the Skylanders series: Swap Force. At the New York event we had a chance to see some early levels of gameplay. What was immediately obvious was the higher fidelity of visuals this time round. With new developer Vicarious Visions...
Tuesday5th Feb 2013
News Activision Announces Skylanders Swap Force For Wii U, Wii And 3DS
Swap shop
It seems our intuition was correct - we predicted yesterday that a new Skylanders release was in the offing, and Activision has dropped the bombshell by announcing Skylanders Swap Force, the next instalment in the million-selling series. It's coming to all major Nintendo platforms, too. As the name suggests, the focus of this new range is...