The game is set around Spyro and his Skylander friends who have to defeat Kaos, the evil Portal Master. The game is played as a third-person action game and each character has different abilities. The characters are divided into eight groups (classes) tied to the eight elements that are in the game: air, water, earth, tech, undead, magic, fire, and life, with four characters in each element. Each character has two primary attacks, both of which can be upgraded by using coins collected in the game. Experience also leads to new abilities, also unlocked by discovering certain hats, and eventually a tertiary attack. Among the line of toys there are randomly inserted Gold, Platinum and Pearl versions of certain characters.