Let us Discuss...SKYLANDERS

My daughter (6 yrs old) and I played Trap Team and beat the game. The cool thing about it is trapping villains and then being able to play as villains during the game (to a set time limit then they go back and regenerate to be brought forth again - in a matter of minutes). But it does make you then buy traps as each villain belongs to an element and you need the right trap element to trap it.

Also, villains can open certain stashes and also have a very quick mission/quest they can do to evolve (nothing much more than changing color, maybe a stronger attack).

My daughter is replaying chapters to find a bunch of things and just reliving the joy of the game.

I found it very simple and easy, but it is not made for me. But honestly if I didn't play that again I wouldn't miss it: though I do stay and watch her play. And she is playing a lot!

It's definitely kid-focused...but I think it works just fine as a casual action-RPG for adults...there's plenty there to keep it lively. I've gone back and replayed some of the chapters we did as a team (kids playing, dad advising) and enjoyed that...it is somewhat unfair that you can't 100% them without having all of the figure-unlocked stuff.

We hadn't really tried the arena modes yet...wow, it really feels like Star Control there, but not as wildly imbalanced.

OK, let's not talk about Star Control anymore. Or that time a Shofixti took down an Ur-Quan Dreadnaught. None of that.

Michael describes my experience above almost perfectly in his first paragraph. I got it for my son to play thinking I'd play it with him occasionally and found myself playing it solo almost as much.

It's really Pokemon in physical form, down to the "gotta-catch-em-all" collectability of the figures. The gameplay is solid enough to be fun for adults as well as children. It helps that some of the figures are really, really well done. As much as it stinks paying $15 for the Trap Masters, most of them look cool enough to put on my desktop at work. The character design has gotten better, although some of the elements are running out of ideas - could they not think of another water guy so that we wouldn't have Series 4 Gil Grunt?

At this point I would still consider Spyro's Adventure the best game in the series. Giants was either too easy or too annoying (the walking robot level was the worst). Swap Force was okay but the levels took forever to play and you couldn't save partway. Trap Team is fun enough although you can tell Activision thought about all the ways they could squeeze money out of the franchise and put most of them in the game (need 7 more $15 guys, 2 $30 expansions, and 7 more $6 traps to unlock all the content, check!) The worst part of Trap Team is that they took out the player-vs.-player arenas, which is why my son and I still play Swap Force more than anything else.

River LOVES that robot level. We've done it like five times. Giants is really much more on his level than Swap Force, which has a little more complexity. That said, I like SF better because of that. But yeah, the levels are way too damn long to not have checkpoints, especially if you are doing all the ability challenges, element gates and so forth.

I really want Trap Team rather irrationally right now...not even over 10% done on either of the ones we have. Somebody help me.

The worst part about the Swap Force levels is that (at least in the Wii U version) the screen will flash "Checkpoint!" in big letters about halfway through but it doesn't save. I was super frustrated the first time I found that out.

Swap Force also allowed me to see the growth of my son as a gamer. He had barely turned 6 when I got the game for him in May and he had enormous trouble jumping. I had also gotten Giants cheap ($10 for the game and giant if you already had a portal), so he started playing that and had an easier time of it. Fast forward 2 weeks, though, and the kid was jumping in SF like a pro.

If you don't have the money to invest, wait out Trap Team for a while and buy up the older stuff cheap. I finished our collection of pre-TT stuff about a month before it came out (one of each character, not one of each figure) and we've still got guys we've barely played in arena mode. eBay is a treasure trove for cheap guys if you don't need them sealed or want the card that comes with.

I play it occasionally with my 7 year old, who would like to play all the time, if he could. My 4 year old son loves it as well, but the controls are bit too 'sophisticated' for him. Especially for the jumping part I often take over. We liked Giants and Swap Force, although I have to say the Swap Force figures are absolutely great as they give this sense of infinite variety. The kids love to chose and swap. After having rushed through the games (haven't checked most of the additional stuff) we are a bit on a hiatus as we haven't pulled the trigger on Trap Team. But it will come.

I downloaded the Skylanders game for my phone recently, where you can also play with the characters that you have, when you type in the code from the box. Anyone has any experience with that? For now I assume it is one of those scam mobile games, but maybe I'm wrong.

Favourite characters: Prism Break, Drobot and Crusher. Blast Zone is awesome as well.

There is a reason Skylanders kicks so much ass. It was original designed and developed by Toys for Bob...yes those beautiful bastards that did indeed give us Star Control I and II. These guys have been solid for years and I'm really glad they hit it out of the park with Skylanders.

The only problem I can see with the game is that it's published by Activision. I can see this game going the exact same route as Guitar Hero/Rockband and Call of Duty. They just can't seem to stop pumping out games. Thanks to Disney's Infinity there is another similar product and I can just see this being like Rockband and Guitar Hero all over again. Too much product and eventually the consumer gets burnt out. It might not happen though because it's aimed specifically at children and family.

I've never dabbled in the game...but here is a question for y'all: Where do you start? Can you still get the original Skylanders figures or are they OOP and expensive as fuck now?

I would totally buy into a Star Control game that had little RFID ships like this.

The only figures that are really expensive are some of the exclusive/limited/rare ones. Most of the figures- at least through Swap Force- you can pick up used on eBay for anywhere from $1-$5. Be aware though that the first set is cheap at retail now too- the Spyro's Adventure figures retail for like $4.99, $9.99 for one of the three packs. The Giants are usually on eBay for $4-$10. The swapper figures are still kind of expensive, I've paid between $4-$18 for them. The $18 one was Magna Charge, I could not find a deal on him anywhere so I gave in and paid the premium.

To get started, I would recommend getting either the Spyro's Adventure, Giants or Swap Force starter. I don't have Spyro's, but I bought the Giants one new on eBay (from Best Buy) for $17. That's three figures, a portal, and the game. I paid $22 for the Swap Force one- two swappers, one regular figure, the portal and the game. Honestly, that's all you need to see if you like it and there's plenty of game just with those.

But you WILL want more if you like it, there's no getting around it. Again, hit eBay. Look for bundles. And ALWAYS refine the search for free shipping, there's TONS of sellers that do it. There are also a couple of "types" of sellers to look for- look for wholesale/closeout sellers- I've gotten some of my best deals from them. Also look for sellers that do a lot of volume of Skylanders trade, like xportalmasterx- I think I got 8 figures from him, all shipped for $3. Look for figures without the sticker/web code and loose. You don't need that stuff.

And bear in mind that all figures are FORWARD compatible, but not all are backward compatible. They only work in previous games if that character was already there.

Favourite characters: Prism Break, Drobot and Crusher. Blast Zone is awesome as well.

I just got the Lightcore Prism Break ($4.99 from eBay)- he's pretty great. Plus, since he's Lightcore, everything blows up when he appears on screen.

Drobot is probably my favorite. When I put him on there and he showed up with that vocoded voice, it was pretty much a done deal. I really like his rapid fire eye lasers and the get-out-of-Dodge afterburners. I have the Giants version, a really cool sculpt. I tend to play a lot with Super Pop Fizz, Slam Bam, Sprocket (turrets!), Shroomboom and Zoo Lou.

Don't have Crusher...of the Giants, we have Tree Rex (awesome), Eye Brawl (awesomer), Ninjini (awesomest) and Hothead (not as awesome). Thumpback will be in the mail today. $4.75, shipped free. Kablam.

Of the swappers, I tend to gravitate toward Free Ranger- I like the mix of the comboing blades and the lightning...and again, he's got a "get out of here" move (the tornado spin) that I find is really important on the higher difficulty setting. Wash Buckler (one of the pack-in figures) is probably one of the best characters in the game. Doom Stone is fun- big damage. Hoot Loop and Stink Bomb aren't that great starting out but they get more interesting as they develop.

I really haven't played with any figure that I just didn't like...you do start to see when you have a large collection that there are really just a couple of varieties of main attacks- melee, ranged and grenade. Secondaries get more interesting- zone control, status infliction, mobility, countermeasures, and so forth.