The Skylanders games exploit the innate love of collecting toys like trading cards and Lego City sets. Players load character figures onto a Portal of Power, which then imports them into the game.
Rattle Shake is a rattlesnake cowboy from the town of Cloudbreak, whose coiled bottom half can launch bone projectiles or perform a mighty stomp attack. His Frito-Lays exclusive glow-in-the-dark variant, Quickdraw Rattle Shake, is also available.
Rattle Shake’s Story
After Skylanders: Giants, Activision’s series of toys needed a new gimmick. They got it with Swap Force, where over a dozen new characters can be split at the waist like Crocodile Dundee and reassembled as two entirely different creatures. It’s basically sanctioned unholy fusion of separate action figures and it makes for some hilariously cool moves.
The Undead Element swappable character Rattle Shake is a rattlesnake cowboy with a gun. He was once hired by the Black Hat Gang, a group of evil cow-cow-types who threatened to plunder his village unless he led them inside the magic volcano Mt. Cloudbreak to discover an enchanted treasure. Badly outnumbered, Rattle Shake summoned every snake in the vicinity and easily outmatched the cowboys. This feat earned him the respect of Master Eon, who recruited him into the Skylanders.
Besides being able to shoot snake venom and throw his tail at enemies, Rattle Shake can also attack with his feet, which can punch or ground-pound enemies. He can also fire bouncing projectiles, and later upgrades allow him to shoot multiple undead snakes that poison enemy creatures. He can even use a tombstone he shoots to launch himself toward enemies, which does extra damage. This figure can also be found in a Frito-Lay sweepstakes exclusive glow-in-the dark version called Quick Draw Rattle Shake.
Weapons
While the Skylanders series always smells a bit like copperish money grab to me, this new installment is surprisingly fun. As with the first two games, players (known as Portal Masters) are tasked with stopping Kaos, who has found a way to transfer his evil powers into physical figures. The difference this time is that you’ll have the added ability to swap the top and bottom halves of these creatures to form wild combinations of new abilities.
Each of the new villains has a unique personality and upgradable weapons. They’re all pretty cool looking, too. For example, the Earth villain Coal is an elven miner that summons rock pillars to smash enemies. He can also hurl his pickaxes like Wallop to rip through enemy armor and structures.
Other new Skylanders have wings that they can use to fly and attack enemies while also destroying structures and grabbing items. There are eight new “ability” zones that can be entered by Swap Force characters, including one where you can shoot turret drones and another where you can use your teleportation power to escape from certain traps. You can also upgrade your characters’ movesets and weaponry to increase their damage output.
Abilities
All of the new Swap Force figures have their own cool attacks and gimmicks. Boom Jet is a Skylander that surfs on rockets, allowing him to drop bombs, place turrets and take advantage of cover. He can also call in air strikes, which is pretty awesome.
Unlike most of the Core characters, Zoo Lou doesn’t just look like a Kung-Fu Panda rip-off; she can actually summon spirit animals to attack enemies. Her projectile attack sends out a bird that will pounce on enemies, and she can summon a wolf companion to dig up food or buck enemies. She can also ride a bucking boar to speed up her mobility, which is cool.
Rattle Shake’s top abilities include Snake Shot, which shoots snake venom at enemies and slows them down. She can upgrade this to increase damage and add a cobra spirit to help her out. Her bottom abilities include Deputy Snake, which causes an acid explosion that damages enemies where they land, and Spring Loaded Snake, which poisons the first enemy it hits. It can be upgraded to deal more damage and cause enemies to bleed for a longer time.
The coolest thing about these new Snakes is that many of their gimmicks are on the lower half of the figure, not the top. This allows them to be used by players of all levels, making it easier for beginners to enjoy them and harder for experienced gamers to min-max.
Upgrades
Like other Skylanders, Rattle Shake can be upgraded to become more powerful in the game. He can add to his stomp attack, his bone projectiles and his ability to launch snakes from his coiled bottom half. His top half can also be upgraded to make him more snazzy by adding weapons and launching his snake venom from his hat.
The ability to upgrade both the top and bottom of a Skylander is part of what makes Swap Force stand out from previous games. This freedom will encourage kids to experiment with all kinds of crazy combinations of abilities. For instance, a ninja frog with a fire breath or a cowboy rattlesnake that shoots guns might be a real wild ride.
This year, the series also offers players a chance to unlock special areas of the Cloudbreak Island by collecting the correct Skylanders. For example, a player might need to pick up a Lava Barf Eruptor or Jade Fire Kraken to get through a specific area of the map.
In addition, the new game allows all of the older Skylanders to be played. This means that kids will be able to use their entire collection of figures in the new game without any issues, which should be great news for parents who want to keep the Skylanders tradition alive for generations to come.
