Originally announced in August of last year, and following its initial soft-launch this past January, Activision’s latest game in the mega-popular Skylanders series Skylanders Battlecast (Free) is now widely available. Skylanders Battlecast takes the extensive roster of characters in the series and turns them into cards for a card battling experience that’s not totally dissimilar to Blizzard’s current king of CCGs Hearthstone (Free). What’s neat about Skylanders Battlecast is that, like the other games in the series, it blends physical products into the digital game. There are digital cards to unlock but you can also hop on over to a local retailer and buy physical card packs to scan into the game.

Will the allure of an already popular existing franchise be able to propel players away from the dominant Hearthstone and into the welcoming arms of Skylanders Battlecast? I’m not so sure about that, but I do know that Activision has a great shot at scooping up the younger demographic which seems to make up the bulk of the Skylanders fanbase. Another thing to consider is that the previously strong toys-to-games market that features the likes of Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and Nintendo’s Amiibo figures might be starting to wane with the complete shutdown of Disney Infinity earlier this month. A similar thing happened with the plastic instruments and over-saturation of rhythm games in the console space during the massive Rock Band/Guitar Hero boom several years ago.

Time will tell how things shake out, but for now if you’re a Skylanders fanatic or merely want to check out a new take on a digital card battler, you can grab Skylanders Battlecast for free and check out the discussion for it in our forums.