The Skylanders is now back with Ring of Heroes. Honestly speaking, I have not played any earlier Skylanders titles. Despite not being sure completely about how the original ones play, I am no stranger to vibrant action figures. The point here is, Rings of Heroes might be the first time I mess around with a mix of brutish and quick-witted character; it, however, is definitely not the first time I see them. The question is whether mobile is the next rational step for The Skylanders? The short answer is, yes. Nonetheless, this does not mean it is a good one.

Rings of Heroes is an innovative turn-based role-playing game. Instead of issuing orders, observing the action unfold and doing it again, combat runs on a system in which a nonstop regenerating resource dictates the frequency you are able to strike. The player chooses three Skylanders into a fight with enemy crews of diverse sizes as well as spend mana queueing their attacks. Every one Skylander is able to bring two attacks with differing mana expenses into each battle with other passive skills further augmenting strategy and stats. The player does not pick their attacks and hit the End or Execute button to begin, they are just supposed to decisively spend their mana and plow through hordes of enemies until the level ends.

1

“The Skylanders is now back with Ring of heroes”

That is the whole game, honestly. To be frank, the overused mechanic seen in loads of other games recurs; however, it is not going to distract players from the primary experience. Expect to battle in gauntlets for various awards and do little else.

This is basically Summoners War reproduced with Skylanders assets. The main gameplay stays the same; yet, Ring of Heroes is a much more visually attractive with flashy character models, high-quality attack animation, plus it is optimized to avoid blazing through the battery of your phone in ten minutes flat.

It is fairly difficult to thoroughly review a game like Ring of Heroes. Yet, I would say that the gameplay is quite solid as every Skylander possesses more abilities and skills than the two they can use in a fight, allowing for more complex strategies. Simultaneously, it's fast-paced battle and loads of customization which make me believe that this title may not be suitable for its main target audience.

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“Ring of Heroes is a much more visually attractive experience”

The gameplay loop is easy enough for younger children to buckle down. However, it can make them frustrated navigating the menu to try to progress. Even at my age, I still found the title overwhelming. Its main screen is messed up with buttons and powering your characters up is a complicated process across more than six other menus. Besides, just part one of the title is a list of almost one hundred quests split between repetitive battles and late tutorials which are too rarely separated by its character dialogue.

Expect a bombardment of inducements to spend money to get children staking cash on “summons” to get random characters - through this is hardly anything new for the franchise, or for the mobile game industry as a whole.

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“Character familiarity allures fans of the franchise into this new experience”

Despite Ring of Heroes being a solid RPG, it is fairly clear that this game is simply a Summoner War reskin with characters from a well-known franchise for an obvious reason.

Character familiarity attracts fans of the franchise into this new experience, yet minimal interactions between characters, complex battle mechanics, a giddy amount of menus as well as huge amount of ads enticing the young to spend money would likely to be something that parents regret letting their children occupied.

You can argue that this is a game that parents could play with their kids, however, at this moment, there are much better choices out there.