Skylanders Trap Team – the Adventure Continues

My 9 year-old son loves Skylanders.  We started in the Skylanders series when the second generation came out, Skylanders Giants.  We have been steadily collecting new Skylanders characters and upgrading the game and portal each year since.  My son comes to expect a new Skylanders set to be released each year now.

This year is no exception.  The newest Skylanders game to hit this Holiday season is Skylanders Trap Team.  The starter set comes with the new game, a new portal, 2 character figures, and 2 villain traps.

Besides a whole new plot with fun innovative adventures, the new “twist” on this game is the ability to trap villains after you have captured them and send them to the Traptanium portal (prison) crystal you insert into the portal.  It’s really cool to trap a villain.  After trapping one in the video game, you see a flash of light and you can hear the villain scream or murmur things right from your portal.  It’s quite ingenious.

You can see the Blue trap which captures the energy from the villain as well as the prison lock where the villain is held. Once you remove the trap, the villain remains with it, so you can exchange traps in the portal and keep your villains intact.

After trapping the villain, they become good and could be changed intermittently with the character you’re playing in the video game so you can capitalize on the strengths of the villain and your chosen character.  It’s a very creative concept and a great way to build upon the premise that the portal transforms Skylanders characters into the game.

Skylanders Trap Team Story Line

The villains!

Kaos, the famous ultimate villain of the Skylanders franchise, created a special contraption that has blown up the walls of the Cloudcracker Prison, allowing 40+ villains to escape and cause havoc.  Your goal is to seek out these notorious villains and trap them using Traptanium, a magical material that harnesses the power of the Elements, and traps villains for you.

Skylanders Trap Team comes with two traps. The others you can purchase.

Each villain represents a different power Element (fire, water, earth, magic, life, tech, etc.).  To trap them, you need to ensure you have the right Element trap crystal.  The Starter Pack comes with 2 traps, but you need to purchase more traps to trap the other Element villains.

There are a total of 4 slots for saving games.  This is helpful because my son starting playing Skylanders Trap Team first and was further along in the story line when I joined him.  But later, I wanted to see how the story line began, so my daughter and I began playing from the beginning and saving our game progress to the 2nd memory slot, not disturbing his game progress.

Pros:

• All previous characters from other games will work in the new game and they keep their stats and hats too
• Capturing villains in the traps is cool, you can hear the villain murmuring or talking and see light flashing on the portal as he’s “transferred”
• The new portal also changes colors throughout the game, adding new excitement to the portal
• Each character comes with a Skylanders trading cards showing their vitals
• Over 60 new characters have been created and 40 trapable villains for a lot of playing sustainability
• You can save up to 4 different games using the game slots provided

Cons:

• You can’t use your old portals to work with the new game
• There is no player vs. player battle mode
• In order to take full advantage of the trap functionality, you need to buy more traps

The good guys – Skylanders!

 A Mom’s Perspective

I love that up to two players can play the Skylanders Trap Team (as well as previous versions).  When two players are playing, there is a visible cord on the screen that links the players together.  One player can only move so far without the other unless the other moves closer.  This feature ensures that players must play together.  Yes, it becomes difficult when both players want to explore different areas, but it’s good for communication and working together as a team.

My son could play all day by himself, but he always loves it when I play along.  It’s a chance for him to show me how good he is at the game and “teach” me how to be a better player.  🙂  Although last year’s Swap Force was fun in being able to change the upper and lower bodies of different Skylanders characters, the Trap Team is my favorite Skylanders versions so far.  It’s so cool how the villain’s voice can be heard as he’s transferred into the portal in your family room.  Very clever.

My 9 year-old daughter has been asking me to play Skylanders Trap Team with her in the evenings.  We’ve been having a lot of fun playing together.  She also LOVES the idea of the villain being trapped and hearing it within the portal as well as changing into the good villain character using the left trigger during the game.

And although there is the destroying of villains via clubs, guns, bombs, and other weapons, there is no blood.  It is not a graphic game.  And really, after the villain is destroyed, he’s sucked into a trap and can now be used for good, so he doesn’t really die.  For me, that works just fine for my thriller seeking, adventurous 9 year-old son and entertainment loving 11 year-old girl!