Knight Mare – Skylander Review
Knight Mare is the first Dark Element Skylander making her debut in Trap Team. She also happens to be a Trap Master. Before she was a Trap Master though, she was one of the few Dark Centaurs who guarded the Oracle of Stones. The Oracle of Stones was an enchanted game of Dark Skystones that could predict the future. It was very dangerous because if the Oracle was asked the wrong question seven times it would unleash a terrible curse on all of Skylands. One day it was stolen by an unknown force, and Knight Mare was given the task to get it back. Luckily she found it in a cave where a bunch of Biclopes were about to ask it the seventh wrong question. Knight mare charged forward and defeated the Biclopes before they could unleash the terrible curse on Skylands. Now she is a Trap Master where she helps guard all of Skylands.
Knight Mare is the first Dark Skylander to be released. She is a Centaur which is a creature who is half humanoid, half horse. It looks like her upper half might be that of an elf with her pointed ears. Her entire body, and armor is colored a dark pearlescent green. It’s basically black paint mixed with shiny flecks of green paint. The result is a very cool looking figure that looks more black in the dark, but will appear to be a dark forest green in the light. She has both a pony tail coming out of her head and a horse tail coming out of her body. Both tails are painted blue and look nice against the pearlescent green of her body. She wields a large crystal black Traptanium sword which has six half circle notches carved into the sides of the sword making it look extra sharp. She even carries her battle horn which is just a dull black color. Despite being a character that is pretty much just one color, the effect of the pearlescent paint shining green in the light and her dark blue hair makes Knight Mare a great character to look at.
Knight Mare uses her huge Traptanium sword as her main attack. Her main attack is actually called Traptanium Flamberge where she can swing her sword or attack with a combo. You can upgrade this attack so that enemies hit by the attack will take extra damage over time by some lingering dark force. Her second attack is called Shadow Joust and is a dash attack that allows her to dash through enemies. This attack can also be upgraded with the ability to charge up the attack to deliver more damage. While the attack might do more damage, it also takes a couple seconds to charge where Knight Mare will be vulnerable to attack. The Shadow Joust is powerful but the dash doesn’t last for long. If you are not careful you might try to dash through a large group of enemies, just to find that she shops right in the middle of the group. Luckily there isn’t much of a cool down period before she can dash again. You can use her Battle Horn to stun enemies once you purchase an upgrade. There is also an upgrade for the Battle Horn which will create Shadowy Clones of enemies who are hit by the Battle Horn attack.
When it comes time to choose an upgrade path, you’ll have to decide if you want to upgrade the Battle Horn and Shadowy Clones or the sword att
acks. We chose the Flamberge Aficionado path which improves our sword attacks but it feels like we wasted our choice. Each of the first two upgrades are different combo attacks. One uses the Attack 2 button, and another uses the Attack 3 button. The last upgrade is just a generic upgrade that allows sword attacks to do more damage. I found this odd, as several characters will get all combos into one single upgrade. Also many characters get a generic “attacks do more damage” upgrade as a cheap upgrade that is not path specific, where here, it’s the most expensive path specific upgrade. Overall the upgrades do help, but you expect a little more flare from the specific upgrade paths. The Shadow Summoner path is not that much better. The first upgrade increases the number of Shadowy Clones you can have at once. The second upgrade allows the shadow clones to explode both hurting the enemies and also healing Knight Mare. This sounds like the most useful upgrade. The last upgrade gives Knight Mare’s attacks more power by destroying any existing Shadowy Clones when the Battle Horn is used. Neither path sounds all that great, but I feel there may be more use out of the Shadow Summoner path. The soul gem ability is called The Shadow Realm. When the Battle Horn is used it will create a Shadow Realm where the Shadow Clones are stronger and the enemies can’t see. It’s cool to see the fog on the screen, but I really don’t know what the effect of the enemies not being able to see has.
Overall Knight Mare is a bit of a contradiction of a Skylander. You will absolutely need her if you want to be able to enter the Dark Element gates. She is also very cool to look at and really has the spirit of a new Dark Element. Her attacks look interesting with dark elemental forces surrounding hit enemies, and fog covering the battlefield with the Soul Gem ability. But the reality is that she is another simple attacking Skylander with a big sword. Her dash attack is welcome and useful, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before and if anything it’s a little too quick and short. The Battle Horn does a good job in stunning enemies, which at least gives you a reason to use it before frantically swinging your sword at everything in sight. The Shadow Clones are an interesting idea, but in practice we found them hard to discern if they were doing anything and how long they stayed around. Without having chosen the path to upgrade them, they become easy to forget about in battle. So in the end Knight Mare is a cool character to look at and her attacks look interesting, but underneath the paint and the animations, is a typical generic attacking Skylander that you will most likely want to pick up.
SkylanderNutts gives Knight Mare…
7.0 out of 10
Knight Mare Video Review
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