Video Game Vintage Title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure is the first game in the Skylanders series. It is a video game that is played along with toy figures that interact with it through a "Portal of Power", that reads their tag through NFC.

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure was published by Activision and developed by Toys for Bob. It was released on October 12, 2011 in Australia for the PC and October 13, 2011 on other consoles. The game was released in Europe on October 14, 2011, in North America on October 16, 2011, and it was released in South America by Neoplay on December 15, 2011.

Japan eventually finally saw a release of this game, being handled by Toys "R" Us and Square Enix and was released for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS and the region has also received a unique Wii U port exclusively , being released on July 12, 2013, which was nearly two years after its release in the western regions, thus making this the first Spyro game to be released in Japan in almost 10 years, since Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy. It is also the final Japanese release of Spyro game to be owned by Vivendi.

Vicarious Visions developed the Nintendo 3DS release.

Activision announced that as of June 3, 2012, the game had been the top selling console and handheld video game worldwide for 2012. As of March 31, 2012, Activision has sold over 30 million Skylanders toys, and sales are expected to exceed $500 million by the end of the year.

This is the only Skylanders game to released on PC.

Reception
The game has received generally favorable reviews. GameSpot gave it a 7.5 out of 10, praising its family-friendly gameplay and role-playing-style character progression, but criticized the lack of online multiplayer, the cost of buying a complete set of figures, slapping Spyro into the game, and for finding the Portal of Power peripheral to be temperamental. Nintendo World Report gave the game a 9 out of 10, praising the Wii version for its gameplay and production values, and the 3DS version for its accessibility to younger gamers and overall design. Gaming Nexus gave Skylanders a B+ and praised the game for taking the Spyro franchise to a younger audience once more, though noted that the game has a few flaws.

Destructoid gave the game a 8 out of 10 saying, "It's not the most complex game on the market, but the innovative gadgetry and authentic thoughtfulness on the part of the developer stands out in a market so used to churning out the same old crap." IGN gave Skylanders an 8.0 out of 10. Skylanders was nominated for two Toy Industry Association awards: 'Game of the Year' and 'Innovative Toy of the Year'.

ZTGD gave the game 8.7 /10 in a positive initial review (October 2011) and their follow-up article on 4 January 2012 noted a worldwide shortage of additional toys to the starter pack trio, an issue the manufacturer, Activision, warned of in November 2011 due to the significantly higher-than-expected demand.

Giant Bomb reviewer Jeff Gerstmann gave the game four out of five stars, stating "Skylanders is probably aimed at kids, but whatever. I am a legal adult...and I think it's still pretty cool."

Sales

During the first quarter of 2012, Skylanders was the third most profitable game in North America and Europe, including sales of accessories and figures. According to Activision's internal estimates, sales of Skylanders toys exceeded those of the number one action figure line at the time, Star Wars.

Over 30 million Skylanders toys have been sold worldwide. Toy sales from the first game were two to three times higher than Activision had originally expected, prompting the making of a sequel.

As of December 2012, the Skylanders franchise sold more than $500 million in retail sales in the U.S., inclusive of accessory packs and figures. In 2012 alone, Skylanders Giants, the sequel to Skylanders Spyro's Adventure�the #1 best-selling kids' game of 2011�generated more than $195 million in U.S. sales. Furthermore, Skylanders Giants topped domestic box office sales of each of the top holiday kids' feature films including Wreck-It Ralph and Rise of the Guardians in 2012.