Skylanders Trap Team Reviews
The gimmick is great, and playing as a villain works extremely well, but as a game this doesn't play as fair or as fun as previous instalments.
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.
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.
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.
Skylanders: Trap Team seems intent on forcing players to open their wallets if they want the full experience of what the game has to offer.
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.
Skylanders: Trap Team is definitely fun, looks and sounds great, and offers up some clever new gimmicks on the old formula.
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.
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.
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.
With more personality than ever before and a narrow focus on the new toys, it's the perfect time to play a perfect platformer without being overwhelmed by years of toy releases.
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.