E311 Media | Spyro Opens Cross-Platform Toy Box on Wii/3DS

Activision have announced that the latest entry into the Spyro series, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, will be playable cross-platform over Wii, 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, mobile devices and Windows PC thanks to some nifty toys included in the package. The barcode-bearing Skylander figurines are slotted into the Portal of Power accessory to bring them into the game, with their skills and levels gained stored wherever - and to whichever platform - you take your new plastic playmates.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure will be sold with three figures and the Portal of Power to get fans off to a flying start, but there are over 30 other characters available to purchase to expand the experience. You’ll take on the role of a Portal Master that can command each of these heroes, including Spyro, as they protect Skylands from a rival Portal Master, Kaos, who has frozen the Skylanders as toys and banished them to Earth. Only with your help can the Skylanders return to their world, exploring worlds, battling creatures, collecting treasure and solving puzzles as they go.

"Imagine a kid taking his Skylanders toy and bringing it to life on his Xbox 360 one day, then bringing it to life on his friend's PS3 the next day, then bringing it to life inside his 3DS and playing it in the back of his parents' car the next day, then bringing it to life on the web the day after that, all the while, building his character's strength and powers across all of those platforms. It brings the physical and virtual worlds of play together in a whole new way." - Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.

Appropriately developed by Toys for Bob, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure was created in tandem with Academy Award-nominated writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, responsible for the original Toy Story movie. You’d have to hope for a pretty decent story behind it all when it’s released at the end of 2011, then...