It was always assumed that Skylanders Trap Team iPad, Kindle Fire and Android tablet versions would ship at some point. We just didn’t expect to hear that the tablet versions of the next Skylanders game would get the same release date as their console kin.
The Skylanders Trap Team Starter Pack will be available for “a variety of iPad®, Kindle Fire and Android tablets” on Oct. 5 in North America. EU gamers will get their hands on the tablet version Oct. 10, while Australian gamers will be able to play it on Oct. 10.
Those release dates are all the same as the day Skylanders Trap Team ships for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, Wii U, Wii and 3DS. The 3DS version will be slightly different than the others, as is to be expected. All other versions will be essentially identical in content.
With that said, the Skylanders Trap Team iPad, Kindle Fire and tablet versions can be played two different ways. First is via a custom Bluetooth Skylanders game controller included in the Tablet Starter Pack. This will let fans play the game using the Bluetooth Traptanium Portal and toys much like they would on a console.
The second way, and perhaps the more “expected” way, is to play the game using touch controls. For players who prefer to use touch controls instead of a controller, fans have the option to play the game just using on-screen touch controls and call it good. The Bluetooth Traptanium Portal will obviously still be required; you can just set those toys on the tablet screen and expect the magic to happen.
All told, the Skylanders Trap Team Tablet Starter Pack will include a Bluetooth Traptanium Portal, an embedded Bluetooth controller, a built-in tablet stand, two Skylanders characters, two Traps and a display tray that lets Portal Masters keep track of the Traps they’ve collected and which villains they have trapped.
Like the console version of the game, all toys will be cross-platform compatible, with all skills and upgrades intact.