{"id":12624,"date":"2014-10-24T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T00:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12624"},"modified":"2014-10-18T21:39:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T21:39:29","slug":"skylanders-trap-team-extravaganza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/24\/skylanders-trap-team-extravaganza\/","title":{"rendered":"Skylanders Trap Team Extravaganza!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SKYLANDERS_LOGO\"<\/a>One of the most beloved video game\/toy lines for kids is back for its fourth entry! In this one, what\u2019s good is bad and what\u2019s bad is good because now you can capture bad guys and turn them good and play as them alongside the Skylanders!\u00a0 The story in this one is that a group of evil villains wreaked havoc on the Skylands eons ago, until they were captured by a group of Skylanders known as the Trap Team, who used crystal-like weapons made of \u201cTraptanium\u201d and sealed the baddies up in an impenetrable prison.\u00a0 But now, the main Skylander villain Kaos has broken the bad guys out of prison, and sent the Trap Team and pieces of Traptanium to Earth, where they turned into small statues.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s up to YOU, the Portal Master, to send the heroes back to the Skylands to save the day, and use special Traptanium pieces to capture villains and turn them into good guys, too!\u00a0 Skylanders Trap Team is available for all major current game consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.<\/p>\n

Here is a picture of the box for the Wii U version:<\/p>\n

\"BOX\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The game comes with a new kind of portal which easily hooks into the USB ports on the back of the Wii U. It has a slot in the front for a Traptanium piece, which is used to capture the bad guys.\u00a0 It also comes with two new Skylanders figures.\u00a0 One is a Trap Master crocodile who uses a crystal bow and arrow, and the other is a little guy who uses a tomato gun and his name is Food Fight.\u00a0 One part of the box packing has a use, too.\u00a0 You can store your Traptanium pieces in the holes in the cardboard (as seen on the right of this picture below) to keep track of them!\u00a0 And of course, it also comes with instructions, a poster, trading cards, and stickers of the new Skylanders you got.<\/p>\n

\"CONTENTS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Skylanders Trap Team plays a lot like the old arcade game Gauntlet (with a little bit of the LEGO gameplay thrown in), and it\u2019s also pretty much exactly like the other Skylanders games, too. You move the Skylanders and friends around various areas and mazes, defeating hordes of enemies, solving basic block pushing puzzles, and collecting hidden rare treasures. Each character has different attacks, and they are based on elements like fire, water, earth, wind, magic, undead, and so on. Some secret doors can only be opened by Skylanders of that same element, too. As you defeat enemies, you\u2019ll earn experience points that will help you gain levels and increase your stats. Collect treasures to buy upgrades and new attacks and moves. Two players can play at the same time, too, just put two Skylanders on the portal and hook up another controller!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the really cool part: Any gold and experience points you collect during the game is saved onto the figure. Then you can take it to a friend\u2019s house and play on their console. It doesn\u2019t matter if they have a different game system, your figure will work on any of them. Note that new characters and Series 4 figures won\u2019t work with the first three games, but old figures and Giants will work with the new sequel. There were sidekick figures that you could get in promotions from companies like Frito-Lay, and in the other games they just followed you around.\u00a0 But in this game, the Sidekick Skylanders can be played by themselves now, too!\u00a0 Only bad thing is the elemental gates this time around can only be opened by Trap Team Skylanders of a certain element, so you may have to buy more figures to get the most out of the game this time.\u00a0 Here is a picture of the new portal all lit up and in action.\u00a0 I was disappointed that the included Trap Team\u2019s weapon didn\u2019t light up like some of the other Skylanders could when placed on the portal.\u00a0 It really looked like it would.<\/p>\n

\"PORTAL\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So the new thing in Trap Team is that you can play as some of the bad guys, and here\u2019s how that works. When you defeat certain enemies, the game may prompt you to trap them.\u00a0 If you have a piece of Traptanium that is the same element as the baddie you just defeated, you can stick it into the slot and the bad guy will be sucked in.\u00a0 There is even a speaker on the portal where you can hear the bad guys talking, and they\u2019ll say things like, \u201cI guess I\u2019ll have to be good now.\u00a0 It feels weird, but I\u2019ll get used to it.\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019ll also offer quips in the portal as you play, too.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, once you trap a bad guy, they\u2019ll swap sides and fight for you.\u00a0 The bad guy that is currently in the Traptanium piece in the portal slot can be switched in and out with your main Skylander by pressing a button, and you can play as that villain for a limited time.\u00a0 Swap back to the Skylander to refill the bad guy\u2019s play gauge.\u00a0 Traptanium pieces can only capture bad guys of that element, but you don\u2019t need multiple copies of the same kind of Traptanium to play.\u00a0 You can switch out baddies in the hub world that you\u2019ve defeated, and even trap bad guys that you didn\u2019t capture if you didn\u2019t have the right kind of Traptanium in a level.\u00a0 You really only need one of each kind of elemental Traptanium to capture all the bad guys, unless you just want to have more to keep them separate.\u00a0 There are nearly 50 villains to capture in play as in this game!<\/p>\n

\"SKYLANDERS_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skylanders Trap Team is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief. While you do blast monsters with fireballs, water, and other projectiles, enemies just disappear when defeated. Reading skill isn\u2019t totally necessary as everyone has spoken voices. Parents may need to help set everything up initially.\u00a0 There is plenty of replay value to be had, too, with villain sidequests, extra mini-games like arena battle and tower defense, and even a collectable card game!<\/p>\n

But the real question about if this game is suitable for your kids has nothing to do with the gameplay. These games require the Portal of Power pedestal and the figures to play. If your kids break or lose any of these items, they won\u2019t be able to play the game. So ask yourself this question: Are your kids good at keeping up with, taking care of, and not losing their toys? If the answer is yes, then they are ready for this game.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m surprised they haven\u2019t made a cartoon yet to go along with the game, the characters and setting of Skylanders sound like something right off Nickelodeon\u2019s NickToons. They even got some well-known cartoon voice actors to play the parts in the game. The bad guy Kaos is the same voice as Invader ZIM, for instance, and Patrick Warburton returns as Flynn. And I think kids will like that. Plus, kids can play it together with their friends, siblings, and even parents! Sure the Skylanders games are a bit of a money-sink and the gameplay isn\u2019t totally original. But I still think this is one of the best kids\u2019 game franchises out there today.\u00a0 Plus I also like the message of turning bad guys into good guys in Trap Team.\u00a0 The Skylanders series as a whole is certainly a bit better than its main competitor: Disney Infinity.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see how well it stacks up with Nintendo\u2019s Amiibos when they come out in November!<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out my other Skylanders review blowouts! Skylanders is a pretty big deal here at GamerDad!<\/p>\n

Skylanders Swap Force<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Skylanders Giants<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Skylanders: Spyro\u2019s Adventure<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most beloved video game\/toy lines for kids is back for its fourth entry! In this one, what\u2019s good is bad and what\u2019s bad is good because now you can capture bad guys and turn them good and play as them alongside the Skylanders!\u00a0 The story in this one is that a group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12624"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12627,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12624\/revisions\/12627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}