We visited Toys for Bob’s tiki-inspired studio to get up close and personal with the new game.
Recently I visited the Toys for Bob studio to experience the upcoming Skylanders Trap Team for the Wii U. Every year the Skylanders franchise comes out with a new trick to freshen up the series and expands on old favorites, and this time is no different with the introduction of Trap gems.
The story is pretty straightforward, but shakes up the usual “defeat Kaos” goal of past games. This time around Kaos turns to his childhood idols, villains who were captured by the Trap Team and held in a special Traptanium prison. He blows up the prison, sending the villains, and shards of Traptanium, down to Skylands. However, the tables are turned when the freed baddies refuse to help Kaos. For the first time, Skylanders and Kaos share a common goal: rid Skylands of these new villains.
The game features the new Trap Master Skylanders, who wield special oversized crystal weapons made from Traptanium. Over 50 new figurines will be released, including new regular Skylanders, Skylanders Minis and reposed fan-favorite Skylanders. As always, Skylanders released for past games will be fully compatible.
For Trap Team, the developers hope to put a spin on the Toys to Life genre they created by bringing the villains out of the TV and into the toy. The redesigned portal features a little prison extension with a speaker inside. Whenever a boss is defeated in the game, the player is given the opportunity to capture them in a corresponding elemental Trap gem.
The idea is pretty simple, but Toys for Bob really put in the extra effort to make it as realistic as possible so kids will believe they’ve trapped the villain in the real world. When a villain is sucked into the Trap, the audio fades from the TV and switches to the portal’s speaker as the character complains about their new abode, but eventually decides to help the player. The Trap glows and blinks to match the audio and bring focus to the portal. To keep this new twist interesting, villains will randomly interject their thoughts on whatever is happening in the game to really push the idea that you’ve caught a sentient being. With over 100 unique lines per villain (and over 40 villains), there’s a lot of surprises and opportunity for humor.
Villains can be swapped in to the game quickly with the controller, and since they don’t have a health bar they can come in handy if your Skylander is low on health. Villains feature strong moves but are only playable for a short time until they need to return and recharge in the Trap.
Trap gems only hold one villain at a time; overflow is transferred to the Villain Vault in Skylanders Academy, the hub for the game. However, there is no limit to the amount of Traps you can buy and use, and each element comes in several designs so you can tell them apart.
The game itself is pretty similar to previous titles in the series. Goals are extremely clear with pointed levels while puzzles are straightforward, but have a few added elements to them. However, the new environments are absolutely wonderful to explore with highly themed areas like Time Town, which features a giant clockwork zone run by Italian Renaissance-type characters.
Another level I played was called Chef Zeppelin which featured my current favorite villain: Chef Pepper Jack. Upon entering the level, Portal Masters will have control over Flynn’s airship weaponry and shoot down enemies while taking out the zeppelin’s heavy artillery. It’s a perfect way to shake up the game mechanics and hit the ground running when you start. Upon infiltrating the ship, gameplay returns to normal and players must seek out the villain for a surprisingly challenging battle with lasers and chaotic combat. Upon capture, Pepper Jack, a large, Cajun red pepper-man, can attack with his hand mixer or repeatedly throw a circle of pepper bombs around him.
From what I could experience, the Wii U version wasn’t too different from other consoles, with the exception being that players can use the gamepad’s touchscreen for small things like lock puzzles, and active characters appear on the gamepad. Poking the screen will also trigger a small reaction from characters.
There are a lot of bonus missions, but each one needs a specific villain to unlock. I had Cross Crow, a new air elemental villain, available for one such quest and played a timed mission where I ran around defeating enemies while triggering a set amount of targets. I was able to easily complete the area in six out of the ten minutes I was given even though I missed a target and had to backtrack. It didn’t give me much motivation to go out of my way to unlock more, but with promise that each quest is unique in some way, maybe others will pose more of a challenge.
Besides Story Mode, I was shown two other ways to play: Kaos Doom Challenge and the rhythmic Skeletones mini-game. Challenge mode features different battle stages, such as Twice Doomed Marsh. Players much protect a golden chest through 40 waves of foes coming from three different entrances to get the reward at the end. In between waves, players can build their offense by using Skylanders of various elements to build elemental guns on the field. With each successful wave, weapons are upgraded and release coins to collect. While challenging at first, there is a huge advantage for players who have collected Skylanders of each element since the numerous guns become so powerful that you rarely have to actually fight with any real urgency.
The Skeletones mini-game was way more fun than it should have been. At its core it’s a sequence matching game where you “fight” six different well known characters, like Flynn or Kaos, to compete for a spot as a background singer in the Skeletones band as any Skylander or villain. However, the ridiculous “singing” of the characters mixed with the over-the-top musical genres used transform the game into an addictive and hilarious way to spend your time. Each level can be played as easy, medium, hard or expert and features special button mashing rock out sections where players try to fill their meter before it returns to the normal song.
Overall the game is going in the right direction with new mini-games and some more challenging moments. While skeptics may not see the Trap addition as a huge change, the game is well designed to push the portal’s new trick to something more tangible, carrying it into all parts of the game, and creating fun quirks and touches that give the game a new polish.
