Starlink: Fighting for Atlas – Going Warm with Nintendo's Starfox Character on Switch

Ubisoft has introduced its new entry into the toy market for life, Starlink: Battle for Atlas. I played it at a recent preview event on the Nintendo Switch and I learned with Starfox's character Fox McCloud, that Nintendo agreed to allow Ubisoft to use it as extra character in the game

The presence of Fox McCloud shows that Ubisoft is betting on this market. Activision and Toys for Bob created toys-to-life with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure in 2011. In 2014, the hybrid game generated more than $ 2 billion in revenue from video game sales and more than $ 175 million figurines. But the market collapsed, taking Activision, Disney and Warner Bros to death. In 2017, even Activision put the Skylanders on hold.

That's why Ubisoft's market entry is so important. The huge French game publisher hopes to save toy-to-life as a billion-dollar game segment. Or maybe it will create an even bigger crater.

I wrote a preview of the gameplay on Planet Haven and I interviewed producer Matthew Rose, who helped launch the game a few years ago with a team of just eight people. The game debuts Oct. 16 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. You can also buy toy boats, weapons and characters like Fox McCloud as separate purchases.

With Starlink, you have a modular spaceship that you can customize yourself. You choose your driver. Then you attach the spaceship and two weapons to the controller. Everything fits easily. Then you dive into the video game and fight. If you have the wrong toys attached to the enemy you meet, you can change them on the fly and the game will continue to play.

The game takes place in the Atlas system, which has seven inhabited worlds. I played in Act II on Xbox One, exploring the once-happy world of Haven, a peaceful world with 80-story plants. I have also played the act I on the Nintendo Switch. I used the traditional controller on the switch, and then attached my character, my spaceship, and my weapons to the controller.

After watching the opening cinematic, I was immediately caught in an aerial combat in space, while I had to chase enemy fighters from the Drake Space of the Forgotten Legion, an extraterrestrial race that wants to destroy the Atlas system.

When you link a pilot, ship, or weapon to the game controller, it is instantly put online in the game. If you are in a difficult battle or have the wrong weapon, you can immediately disengage and plug in another one. toy. It's a magical marriage of physical toys and digital games. In toys for life, these are the stakes of the table. You have to make a toy instantly playable in a game, and it's good to see that Ubisoft has understood.

I chose to play with Fox McCloud, so I picked up his boat and hooked it to my switch controller. Then I tied him some weapons. I entered the air combat opening game and I found it relatively easy to control and get into the action. When I finished this part, I had to go down to the planet with a damaged ship. I had to change weapons to deal with foreign targets at close range. I moved around the planet because my ship was unable to fly. It was not so much fun, but it allowed me to learn how to use the controls and understand surface combat.

Fox McCloud is not just a plug-in character. Starfox is integrated into the cinematics of the game. If you exchange Fox McCloud, the game is smart enough to know that you have a different character and he must play a different cinematic for this character. The story, cinematics and the environment all react to your choice of a driver.

You will not have to choose from hundreds of toys, as you did with Skylanders. But it will not be cheap to buy everything you want to feel well equipped to deal with all situations. It can be expensive, and it will remind you as a parent why you hated the Skylanders so much. But Rose points out that you can play the game entirely in digital form. You do not have to buy toys at all. Each boat package costs $ 25, the pilot packs $ 8 and the weapon packs $ 10. In addition to that, you buy a $ 75 game.

Rose said Ubisoft targets children who grow up playing video games as offspring of gamers. They can play games for young children, but they often have nothing to go to the next level. You do not want them to play mature games like Doom. So, Starlink is trying to fill that void with something that suits its age, Rose said. The physical-digital combination is like combining Saturday morning cartoons with toys so you can get lost in the experience. And by adding Starfox, Nintendo also captures part of the fan population. Now the question is whether toys for life will have another chance to succeed.