Attention Skylanders fans! Superchargers day is nearly upon us! With just a few days to go until the latest instalment in the multi-million selling 'toys-to-life' game hits stores, excitement here at Everybody Plays is definitely building. The game, which melds real life figure collecting with a solid co-op adventure, full of enemy bashing, puzzle solving and enchilada-related hilarity is now on it's fifth year, with each game bringing something else to the table. This year's hook? Vehicles (for a full overview of what figures are coming, make sure you check our complete list of Skylanders SuperChargers characters, and our list of SuperChargers vehicles.
Blending vehicle-based sections, across the land, over the sea and through the sky, with the more traditional on foot adventure, Skylanders Superchargers brings with it a more varied adventure than previous entries. Spread throughout the game's levels are various vehicle sections, where you'll need to drive your car into a series of bells to open a door, take on a large wave-machine-come-lightning-conductor in your little boat, or simply dogfight with enemy planes in the sky - and much, much more. Should you tire of the regular story mode, you and a friend can kickback and enjoy a few rounds of the brand new Mario Kart-style racing game instead, playing as all your favourite Skylanders in a new, more competitive, way. And this is where the new Racing Action Packs come in.
The new way to settle your Skylanders differences!
A mainstay of the previous Skylanders games (with the exception of Skylanders Giants), extra 'Level Packs' have been a way to expand your game for aeons, packing in a Skylander character, a couple of items and of course, a new level to play through. This year, however, Activision have turned things around a little, effectively selling you extra bits and pieces for the new multiplayer racing mode instead. These new Racing Action Packs will be taking the place of the Level Packs of old, and include one Supercharger Skylander figure, their signature vehicle and a villain trophy item - but there's a lot more to it than just a new figure or three.
One of the packs in all its glory
The three packs, the imaginatively titled Land Racing Action Pack, Sea Racing Action Pack and Sky Racing Action Pack, each unlock two new tracks each for your chosen mode of transport, and a few new modes too - Supervillain Cup, Boss Pursuit and Mirror Cup. We assume the Mirror Cup is much like the mirror mode on Mario Kart, effectively reversing the track so you're racing around it backwards for a bit of variation, although the Supervillain Cup and Boss Pursuit are a little bit more unclear - perhaps the former is a more traditional set of races, while the latter is more of a Time Trial-esque beat-the-villain's-time-around-the-track? What we do know is that across these modes you'll be able to race against Trap Team's villains, with four in each pack, and once defeated, you'll then be able to play as them too, in their cars. Somewhat like last year's trapping, the villain trophy item can then be used to store one of your defeated villains to take it around to a friend's house to play. With twelve different villains spread over the three Racing Action Packs, four in each, it sounds like quite a nice way of bringing back the villains from the previous game, some of which were rather cool in their own way - we're particularly fond of Chompy Mage and Painyatta, for example.
Painyatta's car is as much a rainbow explosion as Painyatta himself!
Currently, the only Racing Action Pack that's been revealed is the Sea Racing Action Pack, which includes a Deep Dive Gill Grunt figure, his signature Reef Ripper vehicle and the Sea Trophy, a golden trophy emblazoned with the face of Golden Queen, the short-tempered, gold-obsessed leader of Trap Team's band of villains, the Doom Raiders. In fact, the Golden Queen trophy looks strangely similar to the Kaos trophy that comes in the special edition Dark Edition of Skylanders Superchargers, which will let you race as Kaos too - but whether it'll unlock some exclusive levels or challenges too remains to be seen.
Skylanders Superchargers will be racing onto the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U in just a few days time, on the 25th September, with a complimentary, maybe more straight kart racing title coming to the Wii and 3DS. And, thanks to our super detective skills (by which we mean GAME's website), we can tell you that the aforementioned Sea Racing Action Pack will be out on launch day too, priced at an eye-watering £34.99.
