Riot Games is getting out of hand with these metallic skins. In the latest “PROJECT”, six champions have been given additional skins that resemble androids. If you play League of Legends, this shouldn’t come as a surprise at all. Players buying new skins (i.e. outfits) so they can play dress up is just a fun way to support the otherwise free-to-play MOBA. Lately, it’s more common for Riot Games to release champion skins that share a theme.
For example, the newest skins released are Battle Boss Blitzcrank and Arcade Riven, which compliment the previously released Final Boss Veigar, Arcade Sona, and Arcade Miss Fortune.
Battle Boss Blitzcrank
Arcade Riven
In addition to the skins, there’s the complimentary side-scroller game Blitzcrank: Poro Round-up. Riot Games is currently doing a good job of tying in themes and making players feel like there’s always an event going on. It makes the game unpredictable and refreshing for reasons not related to actual gameplay. However, in the case of PROJECT: SKINS, I can’t help but feel underwhelmed.
(From Left to Right) Leona, Fiora, Yi, Lucian, Zed
What some summoners may forget is that there’s already been a previous “PROJECT.”
PROJECT: MECHA from 2014 is similar in concept and featured skins for Malphite and Aatrox. It’s a wonder why PROJECT: SKINS wasn’t named PROJECT: ANDROID instead, if all the ‘Projects’ are to be metallic. It presents the possibility that Riot Games will eventually add more like they did for Final Boss Veigar. However, there was no fancy event or temporary game change to accommodate the release of these game-themed skins. At most, players got the short poro game. Since Bilgewater just ended, it’s understandable that they wouldn’t want to rush out another event so soon.
Yet it still doesn’t make sense when they were so eager to mesh lore and gameplay together as per player requests. Is Riot mixing it up with these themes? Bilgewater had complete champion updates, the Arcade skins have a mini game, and PROJECT: SKINS has an interactive website.
But that’s it. The chosen champions were easily figured out from the website and then released within a couple days. There was no build-up or anything fascinating about the ordeal. The website is a one-time trip that only served as a two-day hint and is no longer relevant.
If gamers are anything like me, they love robots and arcade-themed outfits. But the PROJECT: SKINS “reveal” was a boring disappointment whose name doesn’t make sense with the existence of PROJECT: MECHA. I can only assume Riot Games didn’t mention MECHA because there are no plans to tie the two events together. In that case, the next PROJECT is probably going to be robots, again.
