Skylanders breaks into the kart racing genre with SuperChargers

It’s time to welcome Skylanders into the world of kart-racing. Enter Skylanders: SuperChargers.

With vehicles being introduced to the series, multiplayer kart racing was a predictable move, but the introduction of online racing took the Gamescom crowd by surprise.

Online players have access to six tracks – two each for land, air, and sea vehicles. Four human players and four AI race each course, gathering power-ups that trigger as soon as they’re collected from their hidden spots along the track.

Each vehicle comes equipped with a primary and secondary rechargeable weapon that help the player reduce an enemy’s life bar. When the life bar is depleted, the player is stunned.

Play online with your friends on land, by sea, or in the air.

Play with your pals

Perhaps even more surprising is the introduction of online multiplayer mode – a move Vicarious Visions intends to make the game feel more like sitting on the couch with a friend. This means if one player changes Skylanders, both are going to see the transition sequence.

Playing it Safe

The Skylanders series has a young target audience, so Vicarious Visions takes the online safety and security of its players very seriously. Players can only invite people on their friends list to play, and they can only use the in-game voice communication system with friends. If your child has two friends that aren’t friends with each other, they can’t speak to one another.

Many of the series’ old characters will be returning, but with entirely new skill trees, it’s worth the upgrade to the new figures. Don’t get rid of the old ones, though; the new versions won’t be compatible with the older games – a move by Activision and Vicarious Visions to those old characters and their toys continued relevance.

Skylanders: SuperChargers releases September 20 for Wii, WiiU, 3DS, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and iOS.