Skylanders Trap Team Reviews
Activision's toys-to-life series is still wonderfully entertaining, but Trap Team's relentless encouragement to buy new toys can be draining on your enthusiasm – and your wallet.
Heavy investment is required to maximise the game's potential, and the burning question is whether Skylanders: Trap Team is worth the various upgrades on offer. To its target audience of collectors and Skylanders fanatics, the answer is yes. This is another endearing and inventive addition to the fold, but those unwilling to delve into the game wholeheartedly should probably give it a miss.
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.
Trap Team might make it so that your existing Skylanders are rendered useless, but it just might be the best Skylanders yet.
A magical adventure filled with colourful characters and a level of interaction that sucks you right in, Skylanders: Trap Team is a unique experience that once tried won't be forgotten.
Skylanders Trap Team won't be the cheapest video game for families this year, but with the Starter Pack and some old figures, this compelling action adventure offers good value.
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.
Skylanders: Trap Team brings enough new tricks to keep Activision's cash cow entertaining for another year, but we sense that there may need to be some more meaningful changes next time around. For now, though, kids and adults alike are going to love this charming romp – even if wallets will be hit harder than ever before. It turns out that you can buy happiness after all.
Skylanders: Trap Team takes what is already great about the franchise and makes it even better with the incredibly fun trapping mechanic that propels the villains into the spotlight.
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 full of polish, and expands upon its predecessors' mechanics in interesting ways. It could very easily be the series' best outing thus far.
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.
Even with these quirks Trap Team is still the best game in the series to date. Sure it is yet another massive investment, but I am glad to see that the team continues to improve the core game and make it even more fun with each iteration.
While not without its questionable qualities — expect to pay $120 to get something approaching an optimal play experience — Skylanders: Trap Team continues the series' tradition of catering to kids by treating them with respect. And the new trapping gimmick more than justifies itself through the flexibility it offers... not to mention the amusing and diverse role it gives the game's villains.
The cool trapping mechanics and the villains keep the Skylanders formula from going stale, but there are signs that the level designers are running short of new ideas, and the requirements in terms of new figures and trapping crystals feel a bit cynical. Skylanders is still the best of the Toys to Life games for action – and there's a real magic to trapping and taming those evil critters – but it needs more work to the core gameplay if the series wants to keep heading in the right direction.
Overall, Skylanders Trap Team is a solid addition to the Skylanders series. Although the Trap Masters themselves aren't as big a gameplay addition as say, the Swap Force crew, the trappable villains are what really raise the enjoyment for this game. The New Kaos Doom Challenge is fun as well for folks looking for new diversions in Skylanders. If you have kids who enjoyed the previous Swap Force games, they're going to love Trap Team as well.
While I never really connected with the trap mechanic or the new Trap Master toys, Skylanders: Trap Team is still a well-oiled machine. On newer consoles it looks fantastic, the action gameplay is still exciting, and the charm is still there. I just hope that Activision and its ilk have more interesting concepts in mind for the next iteration.
Trap Team will give your kids a crash course in gaming basics — and you'll get an enjoyable and surprisingly deep game to play with a wide range of age groups.
Skylanders Trap Team refreshes the toys-to-life magic with new portal tech, charming characters, and engaging gameplay that any gamer can enjoy.