Skylanders: Trap Team

Activision's Skylanders game franchise has always been about selling the toy figurines. While this is somewhat apparent in its previous outings, it is now quite obvious in the latest sequel, Trap Team.

Here, players can trap the villain bosses that they defeat at various levels, by locking them up with Traptanium crystals. This is so that at any point in the game, a player can choose to play the game as the villain.

The catch? Traptanium crystals ($19.90 each) are accessories that players have to buy, alongside the new Skylander figurines. You need at least eight Traptanium crystals for the game, one for each of the eight elements used in the game.

The other catch is that all the locked elemental gates that could be accessed by Skylanders aligned with a specific element can now only be opened by the new Trap Master figures belonging to that elemental alignment.

And did I mention that the Traptanium shrines found throughout the game can be destroyed only by the new Trap Masters? Or that Trap Masters characters deal more damage to the enemy, than do regular Skylanders?

In other words, this is a great time to start on Skylanders if you have never played it before, since you can effectively start the game knowing that existing fans do not have an edge with their old toy collection.

But for fans of the series, it can be really bad, because Trap Team effectively negates the use of your existing Skylander figurines from the previous three games.

It can get confusing

Not wanting to buy eight new Trap Masters, I decided to see if my existing collection of 30 older Skylanders could make a contribution, but it was not easy.

Without a Trap Master to unlock elemental gates, I missed out on collecting many of the items that would have netted me an additional gold star for completing that level.

With 30 figurines to play with in previous Skylander games, it meant that I had 30 lives with which to complete each level. Every time I was defeated, I simply replaced the figurine with a new one and carried on without restarting the level.

But if my only two Trap Masters were defeated, I was, in effect, replacing them with much weaker characters, which made the level a lot more difficult to play through.

Luckily, there is plenty of variety to prevent a defeat. By trapping boss villains, players can toggle between a Skylander or a villain at any point in the game, thereby extending their chances of succeeding.

The catch is that you need to own Traptanium crystals for this.

Here is where it can get confusing. Any character in the game can defeat and trap a boss character. All trapped characters are locked away in a cage within the game. But when you want to bring along a trapped villain as a secondary character, you need a Traptanium crystal.

More play from older toys

Like every Skylander, any villain belongs to an element, so you would need an Air Traptanium crystal to trap an Air villain.

The crystal is inserted into a slot in the new Portal Of Power base and a neat part of the base is that it now comes with a speaker.

If you are facing a horde of enemies, the "trapped" boss in the crystal in your base actually speaks up and taunts you, to remind you that help is just a call away.

Sometimes, in the heat of battle, using a trapped villain gives you a breather, because the bosses have rather powerful attacks.

Unfortunately, you cannot play a villain indefinitely. There is a time limit. Trapped bosses are also played as they are, that is, you cannot upgrade their skills or abilities as you can with Skylanders whose skills can be unlocked and upgraded.

Personally, I do not see the need to own all eight crystals, although they do not cost much, and do supply an ideal backup force.

If you have never owned a Skylanders toy, may I recommend that you pick up the Dark Edition of the game, instead of the regular one.

For $35 more, you get an additional trap crystal unique to the set, as well as a bonus Trap Master.

All the characters in the Dark Edition are also Dark variants of their regular counterparts, which means they come in a different paint job and are harder to come by.

In terms of gameplay, the action is more elaborate than in Disney Infinity 2.0, but that is to be expected, since Skylanders started out years ago as an action game catering to a younger audience.

The addition of toy figures has boosted its appeal, although it lacks the brand-name recognition of Disney's competing franchise.

The Skylanders figurines are also more detailed than Disney's, and look less like simple toys.

While Skylanders has more figures and accessories to pick up, Trap Team is a complete game in itself and does not require additional investment to unlock content.

Its greater use of figures from earlier versions also means players get more gameplay from their older toys. The scope of Disney Infinity is more limited.