Video Game / Skylanders: Trap Team

Capture evil. Unleash good.^note From left to right: Wolfgang, Mini-Jini, Food Fight, Wallop, Snap Shot, Sure Shot Shroomboom, Kaos

Flynn: The Skylanders and I are no strangers to bad guys there, Mags. We've dealt with the likes of Kaos, the Arkeyans, Greebles, you name it!

Buzz: All due respect kid, these Doom Raider hombers are a lot more dangerous. Gonna need to track down and capture each one, pronto!

Skylanders: Trap Team is the fourth game in the Skylanders series, developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision, and was released on Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo 3DS, as well as on iPad, Android and Fire tablets during October of 2014.

A long time ago, Skylands was terrorized by a gang of criminals called the Doom Raiders, led by the Golden Queen, but a special group of Skylanders, known as the Trap Team, brought the villains to justice. They were brought to a prison called Cloudcracker Prison, made out of Traptanium, one of the most powerful materials in Skylands. The Doom Raiders alongside other villains were behind bars for a long time, until one day, when the prison was blown up (one guess as to who did it), freeing the prisoners and blowing away the Trap Team to Earth and the remains of the traptanium of Cloudcracker were made into crystal traps. With the Doom Raiders on free foot again, the Trap Team must reassemble to lock the evil-doers behind bars again.

The Trap Masters, who makes up the Trap Team, are wielders of weapons made from Traptanium, which gives them an advantage in fights against escaped villains from Cloudcracker and to break Traptanium crystals found in levels to find hidden collectibles or areas. The real unique gimmick of this game is the ability to capture villains fought in the game in crystal traps and then unleash them back and play as them. Though unlike Skylanders, the villains are only playable for a short period of time via timer.

This is the first game in the series where brand new elements were introduced, Dark and Light. They are presented as unknown elements by their Elemental Gates and associated villains, and remain that way until a Skylander, a trap or one of the new Adventure Packs of one of the two elements are placed on the Portal for the first time.

A line of Eon's Elite figures featuring eight characters from the the franchise's original game was also released during Trap Team's lifespan. These Elite Skylanders figures feature stronger stats than their regular counterparts when put on the Portal.

This game was followed by Skylanders: SuperChargers released the following year.

This game provides examples of:

• 100% Completion: To earn it, you have to get every star that is available in the game from all three modes, Story, Arena, and Kaos' Doom Challenge. Arena Challenges and Kaos' Doom Challenges are straight forward with you just needing to clear each level, while for Story, there are the three stars per level from previous games, alongside a fourth star that tasks you with new dares that you wouldn’t be able to do on a first playthrough. But unlike previous games, this time you need to also do the Adventure Packs if you want to get a hundred percent on your safe file.
• 10,000 Years: Wolfgang uses Kaos at the giant clock tower of Time Town to travel this many years into the future and conquer Skylands there.
• Abandoned Warehouse: Kaos' old Wilikin Factory from when he was young has been out of action since that time, and so Dr. Krankcase takes over and reopens it in order to lure Kaos to the Doom Raiders.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Secret Sewers are basically one giant factory, and a civilization of Gillmen have lived inside there for centuries.
• Academy of Adventure: This game marks the debut of Skylander Academy, a school meant for education in the ways of becoming a Skylander while also being a new headquarters for all current Skylanders.
• Addressing the Player: After Kaos has infused himself with Traptanium, he says that he is able to see everything, including the player all the way on Earth through their television. Now knowing who is behind the foiling of his latest world conquering plans, Kaos sets his sight on destroying the Portal Master, and taunts them as much as he can during the final level.
• Anti-Villain: In Sunscraper Spire, the revelation that Luminous impersonated Mags to trick the Skylanders into releasing him puts the normal enemies of the level in a new light, as they were trying to prevent the Skylander from releasing Luminous.
• Balloonacy: In Gulper’s Villain Quest, the kids he gives balloons to will float up in the air when they take them.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: The Future of Skylands seems to be taking place somewhere in space, as there are many space stations and all the Mabus are using space helmets. And yet, the Skylander as well as Wolfgang doesn’t have to wear anything of the sort.
• Batman Gambit: The Doom Raiders (the remaining ones, anyway) make one to lure Kaos to them after the Secret Sewers of Supreme Stink. To travel through time to provide a power source from the future, they need a Portal Master, and the only living one in Skylands is Kaos. To get him to them, Dr. Krankcase opens up one of Kaos' old Wilikin factories and sends an invite for the opening day to Kaos, with the intent that Kaos would go with the Skylanders there out of spite for the Doom Raiders, which he does. During Krankcase's boss fight, he reveals that he has taken Kaos hostage, meaning the gambit worked out.
• Battle Theme Music: Every fight against a Cloudcracker villain is accompanied by a new theme. Meanwhile, all the Doom Raiders have their own unique battle themes playing for their fights, which is either a remix of their Leitmotifs or another already established theme from the series.
• Big "OMG!": Dreamcatcher shouts this as she is getting sucked into the Traptanium vortex.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: While Wolfgang was the Emperor of Skylands in the future, he also sent the 10,000 year old cheese back to the Golden Queen. With the Ultimate Weapon fully completed, Golden Queen has, as she puts it: "Skylands right where I want it". However, she just expects the Skylanders to fall into her demands and surrender, which they don’t do and instead find her at her lair in the Golden Desert. Then finally does the Queen decide to aim the weapon at Skylander Academy, only that she doesn’t fire it. She instead waits and gives the Skylanders the time they need to take her down.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Dr. Krankcase will open up a sawblade in the middle of the arena in the final phase of his fight. But you can trick both him and his giant Evilikin monster into it, which may result in a One-Hit KO.
• Boring, but Practical: Basically every villain who isn’t a Doom Raider is this. They all only have two attacks compared to the Raiders’ three, and whoever is better than others depends on your opinion. But since all villains are undefeatable and use a timer instead of health, they are all very useful to switch to in case the Skylander is low on health.
• Boss Subtitles: Everytime you encounter a villain who has escaped from Cloudcracker, you get a brief introduction where their name shows up and what element they are.
• Broke the Rating Scale: In one Story Scroll, Flynn claims that he once got a 1000% score on a flight certificate test. And all he did was write down his name.
• Brooklyn Rage: Scrap Shooter’s accent and dialogue is similar to that of a 1920’s New York mobster.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Shroomboom is the only one of the five Skylanders from any previous games who got a new series in this game and didn’t come back in Swap Force. There are other Skylanders as well who didn’t get a new series figure, but rather as minis, including Hex, Bash and Drobot.
  • Arbo from Spyro's Adventure makes two separate cameos in this game. He holds Tussle Sprout’s Villain Quest and he represents the beginner level in Skaletones Showdown.
• Call-Back: In the first level, we use a vat of suction eel soda to bring the Gulper down to size with its horrible flavor. Back in Giants, there’s a Wilikin in Kastle Kaos who mentions that Kaos’ family used to make their own soda, with one of the flavors being radioactive suction eel.
• Car Fu: The Tech Core Skylander Tread Head drives around in a triangular bike and attacks with its treads.
• Cash Gate: Downplayed. In Mirror of Mystery, one of the troll tank heads you need to find is being used by a troll for his cooking, and he will only hand it over to you if you pay him 20 gold.
• Chest Monster: Chomp Chest, who is a living chest with teeth and red eyes.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: After chapter 5, Kaos challenges the Golden Queen to an "Evil-Off" for the role of leadership of the Doom Raiders. All Golden Queen does to win is using her magic to turn Kaos into a gold statue.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: The Trap Team's battle against the Doom Raiders in the opening cutscene was a Curb-Stomp Battle where every Doom Raider basically only needed to be hit once to be defeated. It's not that easy when you fight against them in gameplay, even if Trap Masters have a damage boost against them compared to other Skylanders.
• Die, Chair, Die!: When you have completed Dr. Krankcase's Villain Quest in Time Town, you can shoot goo at dioramas to melt them and reveal hidden areas. And judging by the reaction of the Wilikin who holds the Villain Quest, this is Video Game Cruelty Potential.
• Down the Drain: The tenth level, the Secret Sewers of Supreme Stink. Supreme stink is not an exaggeration, as it is smelly enough to work as a power source for the ultimate weapon.
• Dream Land: The Telescope Towers have been turned into this because of Dreamcatcher's influence, as she turns the scientists' bizarre dreams into reality.
• Enemy Mine: Kaos and the Doom Raiders do not start out on good terms, as Kaos expected them to simply follow him for letting them out. After losing an "Evil-Off" he challenged the Golden Queen to, he ends up being kicked out by them and they take his new lair and Glumshanks with them when they leave him. With nothing left at his disposal, Kaos realizes he most do the unthinkable and team up with the Skylanders to take down the Doom Raiders and get revenge on them.
• Eskimos Aren't Real: Due to having isolated themselves from the rest of Skylands, the Gillmen in the Secret Sewers don't believe Skylanders are real. As the Skylander clear the sewers out of the mutants that have infected the place, their leader Verl starts to believe that they might be one of the legendary heroes and at the end, the Skylander has to prove themselves in an arena battle.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Wolfgang is the only Doom Raider who’s actually concerned about the fact that their members are being captured by the Skylanders, and is the most critical of the Golden Queen’s methods and reaction.
• Flunky Boss: Many villains will be assisted by other enemies during their battles, especially the ones that aren't geared towards combat and is more about support.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Wanted Posters at the academy giving details on the villains present some contradictions to some villains.
  • Cross Crow is said to have last been seen attacking Da Pinchy in Time Town. While there is a Cross Crow that’s attacking Da Pinchy in that level, it’s not the crow that you will be trapping. Instead, that Cross Crow is encountered towards the end of the level and is even a Skippable Boss.
  • Wolfgang is said to have last been seen in Skylands’ future when he doesn’t travel there until chapter 12.
  • Smoke Scream is said to have last been seen at the Ultimate Weapon, despite the fact that up till between chapters 10 to 14, the weapon hasn’t been built yet.
• The Goomba: Aside from Chompies returning as always, this game also has Buzzer Beaks and Grinnades at various levels, and similar to Chompies, they go down in one hit.
• Graceful Loser: The villains, even the Doom Raiders, take their losses with stride, encouraging the Portal Master to capture them. And when they have finally been trapped, they are fine with turning over and fighting for the good side.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • In Chef Zeppelin, you can see Chopper’s Soul Gem beneath the floor. There’s no alternate path that leads there, so what do you have to do? Jump over the fence and land in a hidden area not visible at first glance, when jumping over fences in Skylanders games either doesn’t work because of invisible walls or respawns you back to where you jumped.
  • Getting the Legendary Treasure in Lair of the Golden Queen. It is on the other side of a closed gate after the first tile bridge and to open it, the player must make it across the bridge without stepping on a single broken tile, something the game doesn’t give any indication about at all.
• Hidden Mechanic: Chopper has a hover mode like any other flying Skylander. Unlike them where they access it by pushing the tertiary button, for him you have to press the jump button twice, and there isn’t any hints at this except for his Soul Gem. But what the game doesn’t tell you is that this isn’t something unlocked with his Soul Gem, he has this ability from the moment you start playing as him.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The Golden Queen has throughout the game been portrayed as more menacing than Kaos can ever be, and she also gets dangerously close to succeeding in her goal. But once she has been trapped, Kaos betrays the Skylanders and takes control of the Ultimate Weapon. Of course, given that Kaos is one of the villains shown in the Villain Vault, this shouldn't be too surprising.
• Hurricane of Puns: Wolfgang will be making one in the later part of his boss fight.
  Wolfgang: Grrr, I was kind enough to take you on tour, but you appear to be hogging all the spotlight! Prepare for your swan song, there will be no encore!
• I Choose to Stay: Glumshanks comes with us to the Mirror of Mystery Adventure Pack, and while he finds the contrasting alignments of the other characters weird at first, he comes along to it enough that he would rather stay in this new world. Unfortunately, he and the Skylander have to return to their own world, whether he wants to or not.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • Wolfgang and Blaster-Tron’s wanted posters at Skylanders Academy says that both were last seen in the future of Skylands.
  • Kaos being one of the Villains you can view at the wanted poster and in the Villain Vault, and that he has a unique trap all for him, should give away to the players that he will not only betray the Skylanders, but also that he’ll be the Final Boss once again.
• Kaiju: The Gulper grows bigger and bigger the more he eats, until he's the size of a skyscraper. You don't however fight him in the traditional sense when you meet him, you instead just make your way around him and trick him into shrinking back to his normal size.
• King Mook: In Kaos' Doom Challenge, should the enemies manage to open up the Mystery Box of Doom, a giant version of a villain (or a normal troll mook) will jump out of it, and it has a lot more HP and stronger attacks than regular enemies. And this time, Trap Masters won't do any extra damage because it is not a villain.
• Leitmotif: Every villain has one, even if it is licensed music.
• Load-Bearing Boss: After Kaos infects himself with the Traptanium, he essentially becomes the Ultimate Weapon’s power source, so when he loses his new powers after being defeated, the weapon starts falling apart.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Fire Trap Master Wildfire’s Traptanium weapon is a giant red shield. He will be using as a Shield Bash most of the time, and his first upgrade is holding the primary attack button to use the shield to guard himself, and since it’s burning, it can be used to cause Collision Damage.
• Make an Example of Them: When the Ultimate Weapon has been completed, the Golden Queen uses its power on Time Town and shrinks it to show Skylands what's gonna happen if anyone breaks the rules she now impose on everyone.
• Master Swordsman: Several of the Trap Masters have swords as their Traptanium Weapons, those being Krypt King, Thunderbolt, Knight Light and Knight Mare.
• Menacing Museum: Midnight Museum.
• Metaphorgotten: In the opening to Phoenix Chicken Psanctuary, Flynn and Tessa meet each other again and Flynn tries to give himself and the Skylander a badass description that doesn’t sound very impressive.
  Tessa: When I heard that evil Chef Pepper Jack was coming after the Phoenix Chicken, I came up here to help protect her. I should’ve known that the Skylanders would be on the case!
  Flynn: That’s right, Tessa, wherever danger lurks you are sure to find heroes like us, and since there are no other heroes like us, it’s just… going to be us.
  Tessa: Uh, right!
• Mind Screw: Kaos gains the ability to see anything after infecting himself with Traptanium, and that includes the Portal Master all the way on Earth, through their TV no less, and it just gets stranger from there. Throughout the final level, Kaos will sometimes be talking to the Portal Master through the portal. And in the final battle, Kaos tries to drag the Portal Master over to Skylands, but will fail to do so and instead pulls out a bunch of stuff from their supposed living space.
• Mini-Boss: The Non-Doom Raider villains function as this.
• Mook Promotion: With the exception of Kaos, the Doom Raiders, Sheep Creep, and Tae Kwon Crow (though the latter two are also fought in arena challenges), all of the playable villains are simply enemies you fight throughout the game, just promoted to having a health bar and the status as a trappable villain. Some villains you even fight normally before the time where you can trap them after defeating them.
• NPC Roadblock: In Phoenix Chicken Psanctuary, there are Blocker Birds that block the way forward and only move out of the way when you place a nut in front of them.
• Offscreen Teleportation: During the first level, Buzz is able to get ahead of the Skylander and not be seen doing it, which he says is thanks to his secret ninja techniques.
• One-Winged Angel: Before the final battle against Kaos, he transforms himself into a giant hybrid of himself and a Traptanium crystal. In this form, he can summon elemental projectiles, use Traptanium swords and even heal himself.
• Palette Swap: There were six traps that all contained a villain that had a different color scheme than their regular counterpart. These were Outlaw Brawl and Chain, Riot Shield Shredder, Steamed Broccoli Guy, Riot Lob Goblin, Red Hot Tussle Sprout, and Steampunk Shrednaught.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The newly playable Minis have the same movesets their regular counterparts has. So Minis such as Terrabite, Barkley and Eye-Small use brawling as their primary attacks, and they are just as useful in that regard despite their small size.
• Promoted to Playable:
  • The sidekicks from Spyro’s Adventure and Giants return, and this time their figures are fully playable on their own and don’t just follow another Skylander you’re playing as.
  • Kaos, Chompy Mage, a Chompy and a Bone Chompy are part of the villain line-up, making them the only ones who appeared in previous games and therefore can be played for the first time in this game.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The music during the final boss against Kaos is a remix of "Mars, The Bringer of War" by Gustav Holst during the middle phase and final phase is "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Despite most of the villains taking their losses in stride and end up fighting with the Skylanders, they aren’t automatically on the good side because of it. Aside from some of them saying some villainous lines while trapped in the portal, some of the comics that take place after the events of this game feature them still doing evil. The biggest case of this being, of course, Kaos, as revealed in “Rift into Overdrive”. It isn't until Imaginators when some of the villains has a real change of heart and is reformed.
• Remember the New Guy?: This game revels in this. Aside from the new Core Skylanders who get no introduction like how it was in Giants and SWAP Force, did you know that there was a team of Skylanders who put a stop to some of the most vile evil-doers in Skylands? Did you know that there even was a group of the most vile evil-doers in Skylands? Did you know that there is an old Skylander trainer who is one of the most famous in Skylands? Did you know about all the villains that were locked up in Cloudcracker Prison?
  • The Light and Dark elements get a justified reason for why they were absent until now. Both elements were completely swept away from Skylands when the Core of Light was destroyed, and were brought back by the explosion of Cloudcracker Prison.
• Rhythm Game: There is one at Skylander Academy where you play with a skeleton band as well as another character
• Rotten Rock & Roll:
  • Wolfgang, one of the Doom Raiders, who is an undead werewolf using a bone lyre.
  • Kaos has a level in Skaletons Showdown, and his genre is rock.
• Sand Worm: Chompy Worms guard the way to the Golden Queen's temple in the Golden Desert.
• Save the Villain: Kaos gets kidnapped by Wolfgang at the end of chapter 11 and the Skylanders follow the two to Time Town to save their arch-enemy.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • Villains being trapped in the crystals basically works as this, as they are stuck there until the player summons them back to be played as.
  • Luminous and Nightshade were also this alongside the Skylanders of those elements being Sealed Good in a Can. When Kaos destroyed the Core of Light in Spyro's Adventure, the two elements disappeared and the Skylanders and Villains were sealed within their realms. But the elements returned after Cloudcracker Prison’s destruction, and so they all were released back into Skylands.
• Secret A.I. Moves: Some villains have attacks that are unusable when playing as them.
  • Chompy Mage will spend the second half of his boss fight in his "Super Magma Form", which is his giant Chompy form but ablaze.
  • Krankenstein both during his fight and as a normal enemy never uses any of the two attacks he has when he\'s playable and instead has a pretty basic spin attack. But with how large and strong he is, that spin attack isn't entirely useless.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Golden Desert, filled with Undead warriors and Chompy Worms.
• Stealth-Based Mission: The Golden Queen’s lair and Midnight Museum will be guarded by flying eyes (called “Fly Guys” by Cali in the former and “Spyclopters” by Buzz in the latter), and so to traverse, you must stay clear of their searchlights.
• Take Your Time: After chapter 16, Golden Queen will be aiming the ultimate weapon to target Skylander Academy, with the intent to stop the Skylanders once and for all. It’s nothing to worry about, you can do whatever you want before going off to stop her, including Arena Challenges and Kaos’ Doom Challenge.
• Terrified of Germs: Following a big germ outbreak that happened centuries ago, the Gillmen encountered in the Secret Sewers of Supreme Stink have locked themselves inside the factory for all that time and are scared of any outsider who enters. This is why the Doom Raiders were able to steal as much goo from the factory as they needed because the Gillmen wouldn’t put up a fight. As the Skylander defeat the mutants that have recently spawned there, the Gillmen starts being okay with communicating with them and agrees to shut down the goo factory to stop the Doom Raiders.
• Tower Defense: Kaos’ Doom Challenge functions as this. You work towards stopping enemies from reaching the treasure chest at the bottom of the arena and between each turn, you can place different towers depending on the elements the Skylander or Villain you’re playing as has.
• Unobtanium: Traptanium, a crystal-like material that’s said to be the strongest in Skylands. So strong that it’s perfect to make weapons and prisons out of and also grant all-seeing powers.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The game tries to make you think The Lair of Golden Queen is gonna be the final level, but then Kaos hijacks the final boss position and the final level is instead the Ultimate Weapon.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Chef Pepper Jack has a lot more meat (no pun intended) on his bones in comparison to the first two Doom Raiders. His attacks can cover large chunks of the arena and the lasers he sends out between the phases are hectic. And it all ends with you having to jump among giant meats that Pepper Jack throws into the arena to avoid standing on and taking damage from the heated floor.
• Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Dreamcatcher has, second after Gulper, the easiest boss battle of all the Doom Raiders. Her attacks are easy to dodge or repel and the difficulty of her battle comes more from avoiding standing on falling platforms. In comparison, Hood Sickle and Pain-Yatta, the other two villains in Telescope Towers, have much stronger attacks and you also fight them in tighter arenas.
• Wham Line: Kaos infects himself with the smelly cheese which powers him up with Traptanium, which allows him to see everything, including what has always stopped him in his latest few attempts. At first he simply says “You”, but since he stood faced towards Glumshanks, it makes it seem like he was talking to him. Kaos then turns around to the person he’s actually talking to.
  Kaos: You. There. Portal Master. On Earth.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: After chapter 11, Mags says that she used her "strange anomaly detector" to locate where Wolfgang took Kaos. Flynn then asks what happened to the Information Squid, since it has the ability to answer any question in Skylands.
• Xanatos Speed Chess
  • After the Skylanders cut the Doom Raiders off from getting more goo for the ultimate weapon, Dr. Krankcase had already come up another way of getting enough “Stinkocity” that they’ll need.
  Dr. Krankcase: No, no, no, no, no, w-wait! I have a solution! We can replace the stinky goo with this!
  Wolfgang: What? A slice of cheese?!
  • Also something that Kaos does towards the end of the game. His original plan was to stop the Doom Raiders from constructing the Ultimate Weapon so that they won’t be able to conquer Skylands before him. That failed, as the weapon was still built, so Kaos instead seizes his chance when the Golden Queen has been trapped and takes control of the weapon himself.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: Averted. You can play as any villain you want at any point in the game, no matter if you have yet to get to the point where you can capture them. This extends to the villain quests, as some of them are found before the point where you can capture the villain it is for.
  • Played straight with Skystones Smash. Just like in Giants, you can't challenge other characters found in chapters 1 to 4 that you can play against until you've played the game for the first time in chapter 5.
• Your Size May Vary: Compare the villains between when you fight them and when you play as them, and you notice that they are larger during the former than the latter.
• Zero-Effort Boss: It is impossible to be defeated by Gulper, as he doesn't even notice you traversing around him and therefore isn't even trying to hurt you, and there aren't any other enemies who can do it his place, and there's neither fall damage on the (very low) chance you mess up the jumps. And the way you defeat him is by simply tricking him into drinking the wrong kind of soda by pushing it to him.

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