Skylanders Trap Team Review | Shane the Gamer

StG's Darren Price: "In this day and age, where most games involve maiming, killing and dismemberment, it was nice to be able to play a game with my kids that didn't make my wife frown at me too much.

And it’s not lame either. It is a testament to the developers that they have managed to create a game that works for both adults and kids (or big kids and little kids)."

[Software_Lover]

Can anyone who plays any of the Skylander games give me some insight on what they are about?

I keep seeing these huge boxes in the stores but haven't budged yet as I already think Disney and Nickelodeon are warping kids minds enough. What are the games about? Do you scan the action figures into the games?

[Zanzibar106]

Yes and no, the figures actually have memory chips that save that characters levels/upgrades/accessories. To switch to another character, you take one character off and put a new one on this little USB Portal device.

The games themselves are Diablo-like RPGs that are more aimed at younger audiences. There's some decent platforming in the latest versions - the first 2 games in the series didn't have jumping.

Storywise is pretty generic 'stop the bad guy from taking over Skylands' in each iteration, but there's plenty of humor and terrific voice acting.

Buying additional figures is expensive but each character plays totally differently, so you get a whole new way to play the game. However, you can complete the game with nothing but the starter pack, although you'll see plenty of locked bonus areas along the way.

The Skylander games are head and shoulders above the Disney Infinity games, which are similar in idea but awful in execution. DI has a build-your-own-content component which lets you create stuff but it's incredibly complicated and unintuitive.

[Software_Lover]

Thanks. I was thinking about getting a set for my sons for Xmas. Not sure if they will be interested or not but it's worth a shot. I only let them play certain games, on the weekend, so this seems interesting.

[Zanzibar106]

If you've got kids who like toys and play games, it's a no-brainer. If you really want to be sure, there's a tablet version that you can download the first level for free to try it out, it's EXACTLY like the full console versions. You'll need a tablet that runs it, any tablet made in the last year or so should run it just fine, but if you've got an ipad 2 or earlier, or a first gen ipad mini, it won't. You should look it up on Activision's website to see if you've got a tablet that supports it.