Skylanders Trap Team Tablet Preview

The Skylanders are going mobile with figures, portals, and everything else.

To give you an idea of what to expect from the Skylanders Trap Team tablet game, I could almost just direct you to my preview of the console version of the game. That's because Skylanders Trap Team on your tablet is not a completely different game that shares only its title with the console version or some stripped down mobile version that cuts levels and gameplay from the game ' it's the exact same game as the console version. Now there are some minor differences, of course, since you're working with different screen sizes, resolutions, and such, but from a practical standpoint they are essentially the same.

The biggest difference with the portable version of the game is its portal. The console portal with its USB cable won't work with most tablets, so the game's starter pack comes with its own specialized portal. The tablet portal is smaller and more compact than the console version, and is closer in appearance to the portals that came with earlier versions of Skylanders games. It has an opaque base that lights up from below rather than a clear base surrounded by a ring of lights. A big difference with those portals of old, though, is the inclusion of a slot in which to stick the traps that give Trap Team its name. You can get a complete look at how the traps work in my console preview, but in short if you defeat a villain in the game you can capture it within a trap placed in the portal. You can then play as that trapped villain in the game for a short time, but now that villain will be fighting for the good guys.

Another difference between the tablet and console portals is that there is no speaker in the tablet version. While the trapped villains will talk to you as you play just as in the console version, the tablet version of the game will rely on a little audio trickery to make it appear that the sound is coming from the direction of the portal. Since the portal has a notch to use as a tablet holder on the opposite side from the trap slot, it doesn't have to throw the villain voices very far.

Flip the portal over and you'll find that it has a game controller tucked neatly into it. This controller has all of the buttons that you'll find on a console controller, so it's easy to switch between playing the console and tablet versions without having to keep track of different control schemes. The Skylanders control doesn't have the size and heft of a console controller, but that helps keep the portal lighter when you're walking around with it and makes it a better fit for smaller hands. It features some Skylander themed etching around the edges that help to give it a little character and make it feel more a part of the game than some generic controller.

The portal may be different for the tablet version of the game, but it's completely compatible in that you can use any Skylanders figure and any trap with it. You can even move your figures back and forth between the console and tablet games ' they'll keep the experience, coins, and hats no matter which version of the game that they earned them in.

You may wonder how the tablet version of Trap Team will be playable while bouncing around the backseat of a minivan, but you won't have to find out unless you really want to. The game is still fully playable without the portal and a figure, and you don't even need the controller since the game is entirely playable with touch controls. You'll continue to play with the last Skylander that placed on the portal before turning it off, and everything that that Skylander earns in the game will be transferred back to the figure once the game is reconnected to the portal.

So there you have it, a true and complete Skylanders experience on the go using any of the Skylanders that you already own or plan to purchase once Trap Team is released. The only thing that would make it even better would be if you could get different starter Skylander figures with the tablet edition. If you buy both a console version and the tablet version, you'll double up on Snap Shot and Food Fight ... although some households may view that as a blessing.