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The third villain I am shown is Shrednaught. This Tech-based foe isn’t a character; it’s a tank piloted by two dimwitted trolls. “[Shrednaught] is a character that one of the designers put together just to experiment with,” Huang says. “In the first game, or maybe it was Giants, we had these mechs, troll mechs – they were the inspiration. And then there was a big chainsaw from Giants. We put those together and prototyped a character that could walk around and do a crazy chainsaw move. We saw that and loved it so much we made it into its own character, its own thing. That’s how that one evolved; it was purely, ‘Wow, this is the coolest thing ever.’” Shrednaught is slow moving, one of the slowest I’ve seen in a Skylanders game, but its gigantic chainsaw attack has a good reach, and absolutely decimates the competition. When asked if players can expect to see more villains of this variety, Huang didn’t want to give away too much, but said there’s a different approach to designing these characters. “Villains are difficult because it needs to be clear that these are the bad guys,” he says. “But at the same time, there has to be something compelling enough for them to be on your team. It’s a hard balance.” One of the villains players will gain control over – which we’re guessing will be an endgame reward – is Kaos, the big bad from all of the Skylanders games. “One of the things that motivated us to do the bad guys as playable characters is people’s affection for them was, in many cases, as strong as it was the good guys,” Reiche says. “If you think of who the signature character in Skylanders is, I think a lot of our fans would say Kaos. So he was our number one. As a joke, we made a little Kaos character statue [internally]. Everybody started asking for it, and our 3D printer was going hot and heavy generating those for people. It was sort of like, ‘Hmm… Maybe people want to play as Kaos.’”
Torch is a new standard assortment Skylander figure
Food Fight uses vegetables to slay his foes
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don’t forget about the good guys At its core, Trap Team is still a Skylanders game, and the good guys are still very much the stars. Tessa and Flynn (voiced again by Kari Wahlgren and Patrick Warburton, respectively) return to aid Spyro, Trigger Happy, and over 50 new Skylanders characters on their journey to stop Kaos and his new army. In terms of what people can purchase, these characters fall into two camps: a new assortment of standard-sized figures, and the larger Trap Masters variety. All of the previously released figures from all three Skylanders titles are compatible with this game. Toys for Bob isn’t loading up each level with zones that require Giants or Swap Force characters. Their unique abilities will come into play in some capacity, but Toys for Bob wants to keep the focus on the Trap Masters hook. While Activision and Toys for Bob wouldn’t show us the unique Trap Masters abilities in play, I’m told the Trap Team characters are the only Skylanders that can dig up Traptanium shards scattered across levels. These shards unlock new areas and collectibles. Some of these areas contain hidden, trappable villains. When a Trap Masters character faces off against any villain, they receive a damage boost thanks to their Traptanium weapons.