Disney Infinity may be done, but Activision doesn’t seem to have plans to put their competing toys-to-life Skylanders franchise on the backburner any time soon. Besides a new main entry confirmed for release this fall and an animated series planned to air on Cartoon Network sometime this year, fans of the series now have a new way to play with favorite characters on mobile devices, with today’s launch of Skylanders Battlecast on iOS, Android and Kindle devices.
Unlike the real-time action of the main Skylanders games, Battlecast is a turn-based card game in the vein of Magic: the Gathering and Hearthstone, where players can purchase packs of cards featuring familiar heroes and use them to take on rivals in both local and online PvP modes, as well as a single-player campaign.
The game hasn’t abandoned the franchise’s signature gimmick of interaction with real life objects, though. While downloading the app is free, players can either obtain new digital cards through micro-transactions, or in traditional Skylanders fashion, purchase physical card packs at participating retailers, which will unlock characters and features in the game as well as make use of augmented reality through each mobile device’s camera. Counting character variants, there are over 300 cards to collect in Battlecast, so expect to spend a lot of time (and money) if you want to get everything.