New 'Skylanders' game turns baddies to good

Sucking a villain out of a video game to trap him inside a real toy is cool.

Kids do that in the new "Skylanders Trap Team" game. Even better, after you have wrangled the baddie into your trap, he talks to you from within the toy and begrudgingly agrees to work for you. Then, at key times, you can launch him back into the game, use his immense powers and have your own reformed villain defeat other bad guys for you. There's nothing like turning the evil "Mwah ha ha ha" into your own "ha ha ha" victory chant.

This fourth iteration in the Skylanders' toys-to-life series continues the use of a portal attached to your game console to bring toy figurines into the game as characters. Only this time, you need a new portal that allows for the trapping of villains. The starter pack ($75 for consoles and tablets, $65 for Nintendo 3DS) contains the new Traptanium portal, one Trap Master, one Skylander character, and 2 elemental traps. And for the first time, this full Skylanders game is playable on a tablet (it comes with its own controller); so families who don't own a console can get in on the action.

Players of the first three Skylanders games will recognize Skylands' #1 bad guy, Kaos. He's back with another hare-brained scheme to become the ultimate ruler of the floating islands of Skylands. This time, he has freed a notorious band of baddies known as the Doom Raiders from Cloudcracker prison, in hopes that they will help him. So now these reprobates are running amok around Skylands.

This is where players come in. As the portal masters, players control which Skylanders heroes they bring into the game to defeat the Doom Raiders and Kaos. New to this game are special Trap Masters, heroes with the ability to suck up the defeated villains and imprison them inside the toy traps. As with the past Skylanders heroes, which are all playable in this new game, both the new Trap Masters and the villains are aligned to one of eight elements: fire, water, earth, life, air, tech, magic and undead. There are special parts of the game that are only available to Trap Masters of a specific element; and you can only play with a villain if you have the trap aligned with its elemental power.

This multi-chapter action game is a blast to explore. The varied environments, a large cast of hilarious characters, a ton of collectibles, interesting mini-games and the right balance between exploration and combat make it so. And the villains steal the show with their snarky talk and sassy attitudes. The developers create magic by letting kids hear a villain's voice morph from the TV speakers into the portal speakers and then see the trap flicker as the villain kibitzes them while they play.

Also great is the addition of switching strategy between the Trap Masters and the villains. The villains have unique powers, such as the healing circle of Broccoli Guy, a green-stalked vegetable villain; but these baddies can only come out to fight or heal for a limited amount of time.

The game offers three levels of difficulty, making it accessible for many ages. Cleverly, there's no death in the game. Skylanders whose life meter drops to zero simply claim they need a rest; and players must put a new toy on the portal to continue.

The tough stuff for parents is going to be the cost beyond the starter pack. You can play the game with just the starter pack. But, there is a portion of this game that won't open unless you purchase extra elemental Trap Masters (at $15 each) and extra elemental traps (costing $6 each). And there are lots of other characters and even mini-characters for purchase. Before buying this great game for your kids, you might want to think through your purchase strategy.

Publisher: Activision

Platform(s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Tablets (Android and iPad)

Price: $64.99-$74.99 for Starter Pack, $5.99- $14.99 for additional characters and traps

Rating E10+ for Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief

Score: 4 stars (out of 4)

Jinny Gudmundsen is the Editor of www.TechwithKids.comand author of iPad Apps for Kids, a For Dummies book. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.