Customisable toys meets sci-fi dogfighting in Ubisoft's Starlink: Battle for Atlas

The Skylanders meets No Man's Sky mashup is coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

Who would have imagined Ubisoft of all companies would be investing in the toys-to-life genre? A sector, lest we forget, that's gradually shrinking (it's already forced Disney Infinity to be cancelled and Skylanders to take a year off). Yet here are, with a new game that brings customisable ships to a fully interactive sci-fi dogfighter. Say what?

Starlink comes with a special NFC-reading accessory that clips onto your Xbox One pad, DualShock 4 or Joy-Con controller, enabling you to physically connect your ship of choice. These toys are all modular, with any physical changes you make instantly replicated on screen.

The game itself looks like a slightly cutesy take on Mass Effect and No Man's Sky, with a bunch of intergalactic pilots attempting to halt the spread of a parasitic cosmic intelligence. 

This gen has seen a lot of sci-fi dogfighting games hit the market since 2013, but the mixture of toys-to-life and customisation is a unique selling point we haven't seen since Skylanders Swap Force four years ago. We imagine this one is going to suit the amiibo-friendly Nintendo Switch most of all, but with a 2018 release date it's perhaps a little too early to tell.

Dom Reseigh-Lincoln has been writing for T3 for over half a decade now, covering everything from mobile phones and laptops right through to video games and gaming peripherals. Purveyor of an excellent beard, as well as some perpetually cheeky offspring, Dom likes to wind down in his spare time by listening to heavy metal.