After a few years of fevered popularity , the toy - to - life genre is seemingly at a quiet . Activision ’s huge Skylanders franchiseis drive a twelvemonth off after several annual entries and more than 300 different affiliated figurine , whileDisney Infinityclosed up shop last twelvemonth despite its challenging mix of Disney , Pixar , and Star Wars worlds and case .
But perhaps the offspring was the toys themselves : the little credit card statuettes may have looked coolheaded , but they were mostly non-living vessels for enrapture characters into games . Lightseekersis essay to do something a wad more lavish with its fresh experience , which establish upon the foundation of those earlier entries while putting a portion more “ action at law ” into the figures .
undulate out to stores now , Lightseekers is an iOS and Android game that can be complement with magnanimous , articulate toy that light up , wield glow artillery , vibrate , ingeminate a phone number of catch phrases , and interact with your twist . But in my experience , the toys themselves are more interesting than the actual game you ’ll play , which is but fine .
Something new
Lightseekers is a totally new dimension , unlike those aforementioned spinoffs of existing franchises , and it encompasses a few different elements . First off , it’sa altogether free gameon the App Store that play with iPad and iPhone likewise , and it has no in - app purchases within .
But then you’re able to buy the $ 70starter face pack , each of which number with a with child , Bluetooth - connected action figure , a connectable battle royal artillery , a charging cablegram for the battery pack , and a few cards that can be scanned into the game for extra perks . Andthen , separately , the cards exist as their ownfull - fledged collectable card game , which is sold in pre - made decks andbooster inner circle , all of which can also be scanned into the plot with your machine ’s camera .
Here ’s the starter mob with one large activity figure and some other goodies .
Got it all ? It ’s distinctly an ambitious speculation for Divine PlayFusion , which bring in more than $ 227,000via a Kickstarter campaignlast fall to launch the dealership , and has partnered with lay down toymaker Tomy on the plastic part of the equation .
Each toy is nicely detailed and solidly posable . Jax is the orangish , lizard - comparable fighter , and his arms and leg move , the blazon turn away at the elbow , and you could rotate his head . Better yet , you may lose it his Nitro Hammer into either of Jax ’s paw , and it ’ll glow and vibrate along with him . Meanwhile , water warrior Mari is a bit more cartoonish in style , but has the same kind of posability and various scant - up sections of her physical structure , with an Aquadart Crab weapon that plugs into either hand .
The toy are fairly premium and experience solidly durable too . Your kids do n’t have to be super soft with them .
Plugging the include FusionCore part brings each public figure to life , and it ’s also how they plug in to the biz via Bluetooth . They ’re also very gabby : pressing one button on the FusionCore cycles through a figure of verbalise quips , while the other button cues up weapon speech sound , along with lights and quivering . Also , the figures are motility - raw — so if you pick up Jax after he ’s been still for a while , he might scream at you to put him back down .
Naturally , my four - year - old sonlovedthe toys before I even had a chance to go off up the game . He carried them around , pressed the button over and over again , snapped in the weapons , and giggled at the silly phrasal idiom and reactions . You might have involve your imagination to fill in the gaps on Skylanders and Disney Infinity flirt outside of the game , but the Lightseekers toy do a lot more on their own without even needing a smartphone or tablet .
Physical to digital
And admittedly , that ’s where I enjoy them the most . As mentioned , theLightseekers gameis entirely free and has been available for weeks before the toy started bump off stores — it ’s fully playable without either starter pack , or any of the collectible cards . But even when you do connect the toys , they do n’t do a whole lot with the game ’s main adventure .
Lightseekers takes the form of an action - oriented role - toy plot , as you research the colorful Din Land of Tantos , battle enemies , and complete pursuit . The mankind itself is pretty pat : it ’s heavy on shining , lavish greenery and candidly is n’t too far off from Skylanders in look . You ’ll digress around and chat with the inhabitants , take on missionary post , and enter battle with various enemy creature who are trying to take over the dry land .
Unfortunately , it twist pretty monotonic in a hurry . Much of the game revolves around variations of the same couplet of simplistic tasks : go accumulate something and then make out back , or go kill ex number of opposition in a certain billet and then come back . They all find like fetch pursuit in one form or another , and if you recollect they ’re reasonably stereotyped the first match metre around , just look until you ’ve done them dozens and dozens of times .
With Skylanders and Disney Infinity , which were both console games before they come to iPad , you actively verify a character : you would press buttons to jumpstart and attack , and move with an analog stick , and both games required a physical gamepad .
Even with unlockable ability and customizable jazz band , the fight can be pretty monotone .
build entirely around touch restraint , Lightseekers makes it feel like you ’re tossing out commands to a character rather of really getting into the natural process yourself . you may habituate a virtual crusade spliff if you want , but basic combat is automated and special attacks add up with the tap of on - screen buttons . Lightseekers tries to build up a unique combo system , but the armed combat simply feels too repetitious and workforce - off to be particularly involve .
It could also use a bit of refinement as far as how the dangerous undertaking blossom out and how players are keep heading in the right-hand direction . At some point early on , I must have wandered off of the beaten course , because all of the foe around me were massively overpowered and I kept getting drink down . It rent a while to find my way back to the area of the world in which I could competently search , and all that time in between was super frustrating . If that encounter to me as a womb-to-tomb , hardened plot player , then I envisage some kids might get altogether mislay . Some clever gating of areas and objectives might facilitate avoid that issue .
Room to grow
While the toy do indeed connect to the game , they mostly just pose there once you ’re playing — at least in the main dangerous undertaking . you may plug away in the included weapon to activate the same one in the game , which usually leave a pretty sinewy fringe benefit , but then your plaything just hangs out while you interact with the screen . It ’ll scuttlebutt here and there as you insert new areas or trigger events , and at one point , its spoken pedagogy help me solve a unproblematic mystifier . Still , given how robust these toy dog are , I ’m surprised at how determine the in - game interactions are .
But then there are mini - games , and this is where the toys themselves really show some attached potency . For deterrent example , you may zoom through jungle tunnels to collect coins or race against the clock or a friend , and the gesture - sensing plaything itself is your controller . That ’s right : you ’ll literally move the toy around to snag more coin or avoid obstruction .
Amusing rip - screen battles turn your toy into a motion controller .
It ’s precisely the variety of thing that nestling would get into , and it ’s really an country that PlayFusion should consider search further . Right now , the miniskirt - games are short , fragile diversions , but they permit you get physical with the toys and really amp up the connectivity . evidently , you’re able to also fly around in the main adventure , but you have to grease one’s palms a $ 15Flight Pack toy fastening — which seems featherbrained once you agnize that the vital motion ascendence are already built into your $ 70 miniature .
in the end , the Lightseekers plot itself can be a snatch of a dull grind — both on its own and with the toys connected , but the factual figures are stellar . PlayFusion deserve praise for elevating the physical end of the toys - to - life equation , but the balance here is off , since the biz itself does n’t offer the same kind of excitement . Hopefully there ’s room to spring up , however , whether it ’s with this game or a subsequence , because they ’re onto something with the miniature .
