Skylanders Trap Team SDCC2014 Preview Update: 7/25/2014 – While at Comic-Con (SDCC2014), we were able to preview another level in Skylanders Trap Team, watch interested children engage with the game and play a little bit of one of the levels ourselves.
During the demo Activision presented Skylanders Trap Team on the Wii U. The characters showcased were Torch (Core Skylander), Wildfire (Dark Edition, Trap Master), Gearshift (Trap Master) and Wallop (Trap Master). The series always aims to be as gender inclusive as possible and includes female Skylanders. Torch and Gearshift were two of the female characters being showcased at the booth. They did a run through of the Phoenix Purch level and captured Shrednaught at the end.
A couple of different families stopped by during the demo. Some of the kids had the chance to select which Skylander would get to play in the level. Favorites seemed to be Wildfire, Gearshift and Wallop. Interest in the game seemed to be split pretty evenly across the boys and girls. One of the girls laughed when Pain-yatta, the piñata-like villain, was brought into the game.
The Activision representative demonstrated how to release a villain from the Traptanium crystal. Once you beat another villain of the same element, you’re allowed the option of releasing the existing one. In letting the current one go, you lose any leveling progress you’ve made. But it’s possible you’ll be willing to sacrifice the progress to free up the crystal for another villain. Leveling your villains will increase the time they’ll be allowed to stay in the level and decrease the length of time it takes them to recharge.
We also visited the Interactive Zone at Petco Park, where the Skylanders First-to-Play Tour truck was located. We were able to grab some hands-on time with the PS4 version. We played through part of Phoenix Purch as the standard Wildfire. His movements were a little sluggish, but that’s by design. Larger characters are usually stronger with the trade off being that they’re not that fast. The puzzles were not that difficult to solve, but they probably shouldn’t seem difficult to adults. Most important is that the controls were just as easy to fall into as in previous games. It’s a very intuitive control scheme.
Before we parted ways with Skylanders Trap Team for the rest of San Diego Comic-Con, we were able to grab some pictures of the Skylanders Booth. Enjoy!
Original Article: 7/24/2014 – Toonzone recently sat down with Activision for a preview of Skylanders Trap Team. In this latest chapter of the Skylanders series Kaos has liberated some of the most notorious villains in Skylands from Cloudcracker Prison. With the help of his or her team of Skylanders, the Portal Master must capture the escaped bad guys to set all right within Skylands once again. In order to accomplish this daunting task, the portal master must use Traptanium, an element-based crystal. As an added layer of gameplay, players will be able to have captured villains fight for them.
The tutorial level that was demoed ran on a Playstation 4. The player is dropped into an area of Skylands called, Soda Springs, where a large bad guy who enjoys fizzy beverages has interrupted the Soda Festival. We did not have hands-on time with Skylanders Trap Team and cannot speak to gameplay at this time. We were able to see some of the characters in action, such as Snap Shot and Gearshift. Villains shown during the demo included Wolfgang, Broccoli Guy and Pain-yatta. The series’ sense of humor seems to be intact.
The level unfolded in a manner that players of the previous games will find familiar. The production values appear to be very high. The characters and camera moved smoothly. The ability to jump has carried over from Swap Force. The level detail was impressive, from fizzy puddles of soda, to deeper background elements.
The voice acting seems to be on par with previous Skylanders games. In addition to the familiar Hans Zimmer musical score, each villain you capture has its own theme music.
In addition to the new Traptanium portal, new figures will be available for use with the game. All figures from previous series will also work with Skylanders Trap Team. This will include core Skylanders, the Trap Masters (former guards of the Cloudcracker Prison) and some reposed fan favorites. Kaos will now be playable and there will be forty trappable villains in total. Traptanium crystals are not character specific. They are instead tied to the in-game elements including water, tech, fire, life, etc.
Skylanders Trap Team is a bright, colorful, fun-looking, great-sounding game. We’ll see if the gameplay is just as strong in the near future. We’ll have more Skylanders Trap Team from San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC2014). Keep your eyes out for that and make sure to let us know what you think of Skylanders Trap Team in the comments.
The Skylanders Trap Team Starter pack will retail at $74.99 and comes with the game, a Traptanium Portal, two Skylanders figures, two traps, two sticker sheets, 2 trading cards and a character poster. The game releases to the Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 systems on October 5th, 2014. For more information, visit the official Skylanders Trap Team website.
