Skylanders: Trap Team is an action-adventure game that uses toys-to-life technology.
Easy to Play
Great Characters
Great Graphics/Art
Great Story
Click a title to learn more about each topic.
Story & Themes
Trap Team opens with the revelation that Kaos, a familiar nemesis if you’ve played previous Skylanders games, is breaking a group of villains out of Cloudcracker Prison. Kaos is all about sowing discord and causing trouble, but he quickly finds himself shunted aside by the very villains he rescued—including the big boss, Golden Queen.
Of course, someone has to trap all these villains, so the Skylanders call in, well, the Trap Team. The player (or Portal Master, as the game calls you) accompanies the Trap Masters on a series of quests to stop the villains from wreaking havoc in the Skylands. Along the way you explore the magical Skylands, and meet lots of funny, over-the-top characters.
As you defeat villains, you can trap them and then play as them--adding lots of fun and complexity. The game uses toys-to-life technology, so you have to buy a figurine for each character that you want to play. The figurine goes on a flat "Portal" that hooks up to your system. The Portal reads a chip in the figurine base and saves data to it, so your figurine gets leveled up with new abilities, and items. The traps get inserted into a special slot on the Portal, which also contains a speaker so the villain that you have trapped can talk to you from the toy.
Save Points
The game saves at checkpoints throughout.
Difficulty
Skylanders: Trap Team is fun and easy to play; it's designed with younger players in mind, but is still entertaining for adults as well.
Heads Up!
Violence All the characters are cartoonish animals. They do magical elemental attacks, as well as using comical weapons (for example, Food Fight is a living artichoke that shoots tomatoes from a gun). There is no blood, and when a character is defeated they dissolve into glowing sparks.
Consumerism Skylanders: Trap Team is part of a series of games that continues to release new action figures and accessories. There are over 50 figurines that you can buy, and some game areas can only be unlocked with figures of a specific element (i.e. fire, water, etc.). You can also buy different kinds of traps that allow you to play as different villains.
Discrimination All the Skylanders are cartoon creatures, and though there are more male characters than female characters, there are some great female Skylanders--as well as charming, capable side characters.
Conversation Starters
- Does this game make you want to buy more toys? Do you think that's valuable?
- Who is your favorite Skylander?
- Do you like playing with your Skylander toys as much as you like playing the video game?
- What do you think is going to happen next to the Skylanders?
1 / 5
0 / 5
5 / 5
