Skylanders Trap Team Reviews
This game is gaming at its best if you can afford to track down the extra characters. Trap Team (along with any other Skylanders game) is fun for gamers of any age as long as you can put down that bloody shooter and play something more akin to the platformers of gaming past. But be warned, the Skylanders addiction is a tricky thing and your need to collect that final character can become quite costly. Bah, who cares? It's only money right?
Yes there is high cost to entry and an even higher one should you wish to experience everything on the disc but once you are on board what you will find is a very well crafted, fun, good looking experience which strikes the perfect balance between young, old, experienced and casual gamers alike. Arguably the best entry in a franchise which shows no signs of withering.
Trap Team delivers an experience with enough depth and variation to warrant a fourth buy-in to new toys and a new gimmick. A talking portal and trapping baddies inside magic crystals feel like stretch goals on an original pitch doc from Toys For Bob back in 2011. Take my money.
Skylanders: Trap Team is definitely fun, looks and sounds great, and offers up some clever new gimmicks on the old formula.
As well as the main story mode, Trap Team offers longevity in the form of a large number of redeeming quests for each villain, a silly amount of Arena battles that will put even the toughest Skylander veterans through their paces and the epic Kaos Doom Challenge. Part horde mode, part tower defence, it features 100 waves across nine different locations that proves that Activision's franchise is not just for kids. An enjoyable adventure, but it's really starting to show signs of fatigue.
As usual, it's a costly entry in the Skylanders franchise, but the sum of all its new and improved elements prove that there is still a lot of care and attention given to these little critters.
Yes, Skylanders will make your wallet cry out for mercy, and parents the world over are probably dreading their kids' Christmas Wish Lists this year. But their latest offering, Trap Team, is more than just a money grab. It's one of the most polished, expansive (expensive?) platformers available and is sure to entertain a wide audience, both young and old if you have the cheddar to keep up.
Skylanders Trap Team is a fantastic, well-made game. The lengthy story mode is filled with excellent gameplay set in gorgeous environments with top-shelf graphics and sound. The bonus modes, while focused mostly on combat, are a lot of fun. Outside of the over-powered and integral nature of the new Trap Master figures, Trap Team is close to being the best Skylanders game yet.
It's this sort of cynicism that prevents Skylanders: Trap Team from getting close to a perfect score. No, you didn't misread that. The game itself is THAT good. Everything that the game does, it does with style.
Skylanders: Trap Team is a mixed bag. The core gameplay is still enjoyable, and the new villains are some of the most charming, creative and fun characters in the franchise. There's a lot to like, and there's a great amount of content for your dollar. However, a few design decisions hold it back. The game feels less inviting than Swap Force due to an over-emphasis on combat and a lot of content being locked behind Trap Master-themed gates. The new toys are a bit lackluster, and villains aside, there isn't a lot that's really new about Trap Team. Additionally, the high cost of entry may make it a hard pill for parents to swallow. Kids who love Skylanders will still find it to be a treat, but it certainly feels staler than the previous entries.
A good kid's game, film, or book is one that children can spend hours of time on. A great one is a game that children and adults can enjoy equally. Skylanders Trap Team is closer to Saturday Disney than Harry Potter, but that's not really a criticism of it. It's a highly focused game designed explicitly to fill up the Christmas list of the child in the household. But it is a well produced game, well above the standards of most children's games, and those miniatures are highly collectible stuff. The kids will love having this under that pine tree.
Skylanders Trap Team may break the bank a little, but it's still a great game for kids, little and big alike. Just don't let the bright colors, sappy dialogue, and kid-friendly fighting fool you; it's only as easy as you want it to be, and sometimes, it's fun to sit back and play a light-hearted game, even if it is one made for kids.
Buying the Skylanders Trap Team Starter Set probably won't be enough for you. Again and again, you'll run into times when you wish you had just a little more cash to buy that colored trap, or that Skylander. But more than any Skylanders game before it, Trap Team makes you feel good about your purchases– even if it's your kid that gets to enjoy them.
Through incredibly slow improvements each Skylanders game gets better than the last and you've got to wonder how long Activision can keep this successful train going before it loses steam. Till then, Trap Team is the best Skylanders to play if you're interested in taking the plunge.