Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was toys-to-life action role-playing game released in 2011 for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, Windows, macOS, and Playstation 3. The game was developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision. The game was played using special figurines that would interact with the game via the "Portal of Power" which read the NFC tags inside the bases of the toys. The game was very successful, spawning five sequels, each with their own unique gimmick. Two years after the initial release, Square Enix would publish a Wii U port of the game.
For many years, Skylands has been protected from evil by Master Eon, with the help of the Skylanders, legendary heroes with powerful elemental abilities. However, a Dark Portal Master by the name of Kaos attacked the Core of Light that Master Eon was protecting. Kaos would eventually destroy the Core of Light, allowing The Darkness to spread throughout Skylands, while also banishing the Skylanders to the real world, where they became unable to move on their own. That is, until the player arrives as a new Portal Master, who can bring the Skylanders back, and is also tasked with rebuilding the Core of Light.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure includes thirty-two unique Skylanders to play as, with the Starter Pack including three figures. Those being Spyro, a purple dragon of the magic element, Gill Grunt, a harpoon-wielding gillman of the water element, and Trigger Happy, a gold-slinging gremlin of the tech element. Other figures were available in single packs, three-packs, and Adventure Packs, which included two special magic items, and a new bonus level. Although the base roster was thirty-two, there were also special variants, such as the Toys-R-Us exclusive Legendary Skylanders, or Dark Spyro, who was included with the 3DS Starter Pack.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure also featured several secrets within the game, such as elemental gates that would only open for a Skylander of the matching element and often contained special hats that would boost their stats. There were also Legendary Treasures hidden in each level, which would grant the Skylander who found them lots of riches, which could be used to purchase upgrades that would unlock more abilities. Another set of collectibles in the game were the thirty-two soul-gems, which would make powerful abilities available for purchase. The final collectible type was the story scroll, with each one expanding on the lore of Skylands.
