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With Skylanders Trap Team just announced here's an introduction to how this billion dollar franchise got so big along with family tips on the new game.

Skylanders is a video-game that uses toy figures to access in game characters. This cross over between toys and video-games has become popular over the last few years. A breakthrough point on the technology was the toy's ability to instantly save and load progress through the game making the experience much simpler for families.

Skylanders Trap Team is the fourth of the Skylanders games in this genre. Other similar titles include Disney Infinity, Angry Birds Telepods and the recent Furby Boom apps.

The game will come in a Starter Pack on the 3DS, Wii, Wii U, 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. This Starter Pack includes the following items:

Trap Team offers a new play scheme where children can Trap 40 different villain characters and then turn them round to fight on the side of good. The players can then play as the villains. This not only creates a nice novelty in the game but for the first time offers access to playable characters without buying an associated toy.

In an interview with Jeff Poffenbarger at the announcement event for Skylanders Trap Team we found out more about how the new portal and different figures work together. He also explained why a new portal was needed this year and about the developers aim of creating a balance of male and female characters.

The new game will support all the previous Skylanders from the older games as well as offering 50 new figures. Parents should note that the additional figures (while collectable) are optional extras. The majority of the game will be accessible with the Starter Pack and a handful of toy figures.

The list of characters for Trap Team still has a few characters to be revealed but currently includes the following in each of the element groupings:

MAGIC

  • Trap Master - Blastermind
  • Trap Master - Enigma
  • Series 3 - Fizzy Frenzy Pop Fizz
  • Series 1 - Deja Vu
  • Series 1 - Cobra Cadabra
  • Mini - Mini-Jini
  • Mini - Spry

WATER

  • Trap Master - Snapshot
  • Trap Master - Lob Star
  • Series 4 - Tidal Wave Gill Grunt
  • Series 1 - Echo
  • Mini - Thumpling
  • Mini - Gill Runt

FIRE

  • Trap Master - Wildfire
  • Trap Master - Ka-Boom
  • Series 2 - Hog Wild Fryno
  • Series 1 - Torch
  • Series 1 - Trail Blazer
  • Mini - Small Fry
  • Mini - Weeruptor

LIFE

  • Trap Master - Tuff Luck
  • Trap Master - Bushwhack
  • Series 3 - Sure Shot Shroomboom
  • Series 1 - Food Fight
  • Mini - Whisper Elf
  • Mini - Barkley

AIR

  • Trap Master - Gusto
  • Trap Master - Thunderbolt
  • Series 3 - Full Blast Jet-Vac
  • Series 1 - Flying Kong
  • Series 1 - Blades
  • Mini - Pet Vac
  • Mini - Breeze

TECH

  • Trap Master - Jawbreaker
  • Trap Master - Gearshift
  • Series 1 - Tread Head
  • Series 1 - Chopper
  • Mini - Trigger Snappy
  • Mini - Drobit

EARTH

  • Trap Master - Wallop
  • Trap Master - Head Rush
  • Series 1 - Rocky Roll
  • Series 1 - Fist Bump
  • Mini - Terrabite
  • Mini - Bop

UNDEAD

  • Trap Master - Krypt King
  • Trap Master - Short Cut
  • Series 1 - Funny Bone
  • Mini - Hijinx
  • Mini - Eye Small

Skylanders Trap Team will release in the UK on 10th October 2014. The game isn't yet PEGI rated.

Avatar for Andrew Robertson
Andrew Robertson
Andy Robertson is the editor of AskAboutGames and has written for national press and broadcast about video games and families for over 15 years. He has just published the Taming Gaming book with its Family Video Game Database.