Skylanders Trap Team (PlayStation 4)

Skylanders is a unique series that mixes video games with real-life plastic figurines. The way the two are linked is through a Portal of Power device that imports the figurine into the game world. Past games have let you play as the heroes, though Trap Team mixes it up by letting you play as the villains.

Relying on the bad guys

The video game portion of Skylanders Trap Team is an action platformer where you put your imported character through their paces. The six new characters in Trap Team are as memorable as ever, and the game does a good job of representing the included figurines, which are of high quality and detail. There is also the existing cast of over 40 villains to play with.

The aim of the game is to progress through the single player campaign and collect treasure to gain character upgrades. Team members can be called on to use their support abilities, and even the villains will lend a helping hand if requested. In single player mode you swap between characters to activate their abilities, while in co-op another person can help out.

The Skystones collectible card game that was left out of last year’s Swap Force has been reintroduced to Trap Team. The surprisingly deep card game forces you to think about attack and defence point when putting together strategies. It was one of the more memorable diversions in 2012’s Giants, so it is good to see it make a return.

Enough booty for all

Skylanders is mainly geared at a younger audience, so the game never gets too challenging and there is plenty of treasure to collect. This means the new characters can have their statistics maxed out without too much effort, to the point where there is no reason to collect any more loot. Trap Team could have been an opportunity to add new abilities to existing characters to use the treasure on, but there is no such option.

One thing that has improved with treasure hunting is how it is handled in co-op. In the past the player collected the loot individually, which led to both players competing against each other. Now the treasure is shared so players of different levels can get a fair distribution of treasure.

By expanding the cast of characters to include villains and introduce tweaks all round, Trap Team is a significant step up from Swap Force and Giants. The game also benefits from an overall boost in graphics thanks to the new generation of console hardware. The game does not add much for existing characters, but it does give you more opportunities to collect treasure than before.