darkSpyro

I still think an idea like Baa-ttle Flag could do quite well should it be released as a stand-alone Free-to-Start digital-only release for consoles and mobile.

Here's what I envision:

Non-portal-owning players could begin as a demo with one or two "instant" characters to try.

Imagine. The entire traditional battle/arena aspect of Skylanders game-play as a separate, but self-contained downloadable-only game... using the same game graphics engine as Superchargers. I imagine a title that could be fully patchable to include support for any fully-fledged future games. The primary form of gameplay would be arena-only challenges and modes. Add in online co-op and battle/vs. modes, and throw some competitive Skystones in there for variety, and it might create an atmosphere of competition that would reignite the Skylander-craze for collector's and players alike. Such a competitive game might really give people a reason to have the biggest, best, buffest characters. Gamers might take their existing Skylanders, and go back even as early as Giants and Spryo's Adventure just to complete a few heroic challenges to give their character the smallest edge in competitive combat.

Vehicles could be used to "Supercharge" characters. Traps could again be used to unlock Skystones, weapons, or perhaps even playable villains. Adventure Packs and weapon tokens could unlock new-themed arenas. Trophies could unlock new modes (such as using the Kaos racing trophy to unlock a brand-new Kaos Doom Challenge mode). Magic items could give temporary boosts as they always have.

It'd just be nice to have an alternative spin-off to take all of my existing and future Skylanders and be able to level them up outside of the main adventures... and also learn to compete them in a new way, and maximize my strategy of using their unique gameplay to take on foes and one-another. It'd also be a fine tool to be able to catalog our collections and keep track of stats outside of the mainstream Skylander adventure games. Future games could focus solely on adventure and whatever new gimmicks TFB and VV might come up with for the next batch.

What do you guys think?

For Spinoffs I'm still hoping for character(skylander,even if you can use others) specific stories. Been asking for that for a while,won't give up asking as long as they keep having offscreen moments of awesome.

But dunno, this seems like it'd work as a main game.

I definitely agree with you. wouldn't it great to play some old battle arenas, heroic and bonus quests, kaos' doom challenges, Skeletone showdown, and PVP. maybe for new challanges, how about exploring some more books from the spell punk library. (like revisiting history of skylands and more 2D side scrolling adventures.)