In a ship stocked with giant forks, kitchen tools, and Norwegian chefs, I had to ask a Toys For Bob spokesman if most of the game’s art direction is centered on food. If your progress is blocked by a sturdy wood barrier, there’s a good chance a barrier-breaking cannon is nearby. In between brawls-of which there are many-you’re tasked with typical Skylanders problem solving: puzzles that are hardly brain teasers for teenagers or older. Transitioning from the outside to the inside of the flying ship is a superb trick in level design, where the interior feels much more expansive than the exterior implies. The owner of this zeppelin is Chef Pepper Jack, a living jalapeno who can also be mistaken for a deformed lobster. The second half of the mission involved infiltrating the zeppelin itself and the inevitable boss fight. This was a two-phase level that began with an on-rails shooter sequence where you’re thinning out the ship’s exterior defenses. I was recently given the opportunity to engage in a Trap Team mission that pits the Skylanders against a zeppelin. The current set up makes Trap Team appealing, especially since you can still complete the game using everything in the Trap Team Starter Pack, which includes two starting crystals.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Activision, given their prerogative to make money, could have forced consumers to buy one crystal for each boss. So if you manage to complete the foursome of air elementals (Dreamcatcher, Buzzer Beak, Bad Juju, Krankenstein), you only need one air crystal, since you can only use one villain at a time. You can get different styles for each crystal, but you only need one crystal for each element. While that might mean completionists will be spending more money this year, Activision’s packaging plans doesn’t seek to alienate the Skylanders fanbase. If you defeat the water elemental Cross Crow, you can only capture him if you have a water elemental trap crystal. The crystals are needed to capture bosses, provided a given villain is elementally aligned with one of the crystals you own. That’s where the 16 Trap Masters and their Traptanium crystals come in. With Trap Team, fans now get the opportunity to play as actual Skylanders bosses. They were enhanced with dark powers, but they nonetheless still fought for good. Fans got a taste of this last year with the GameStop-exclusive Dark Edition Starter Pack, which was a reskin of five fan-favorite characters: Dark Washbuckler, Dark Blast Zone, Dark Stealth Elf, Dark Spyro and Dark Lockjaw. Skylanders Trap Team’s theme compels kids and adults to dabble in the dark side. This mix of new and old figure styles complements the series' "forwards compatibility" value, where you can use older figures in all future installments. These are the smaller, basic characters who lack enhancements but are no less useful in the battlefield.
Fans now expect that the fall season means something different with each new cast, although Toys For Bob has always added some first year-style “core” characters as well. Every year sees a roster twist, whether it’s extra large figures or creatures with swappable halves. Creator and main developer Toys For Bob has managed to avoid stagnation partly due to the series’ ever-evolving roster of new characters. As toy franchise lifespans go, Skylanders entering its fourth year is no small feat.