Bat Spin – Skylander Review
Bat Spin is a new Undead core Skylander making her debut in Skylanders Trap Team. She comes from the underworld, where as a child she was separated from her people. She searched for them for months but was unable to find them. She did find a colony of magical bats who welcomed her and raiser her as one of their own. She spent many years living with the bats, then one day their colony was invaded by an army of Undead Trolls. Bat Spin used the powerful abilities that she had learned from the bats growing up and essentially turned into one of them. She defeated the army of trolls and saved her colony. This caught the attention of Master Eon who saw at once that she would make a great Skylander.
For those of you that have been collecting Skylanders for a while, you might notice that Bat Spin is very similar to an older Skylander Hex. They are both small an skinny Undead female characters with light blue skin. Bat Spin favors red over black for her clothes and she doesn’t use floating skulls or other ghostly magic, instead she uses a bat infused staff for her magic. They both have magic abilities but how they use those abilities are very different. Bat Spin, as you might guess, relies heavily on bats to help her. In fact every attack and every upgrade she can use, has something to do with bats. There are no hidden abilities or anything that you might not expect. No magic sword made of bats that changes her into a melee character. Nope, it’s all about the bats. So if you had Hex in the past and think that Bat Spin is going to be more of the same, don’t worry. She is quite different and quite fun to use.
Initially I was not excited to play with a character who used bats to attack. It sounds a little boring and she is kind of weak out of the box. It’s not until she gains some upgrades, before you can see how she causes a lot of damage constantly all around her. Her main attack is her Bat Attack. With this attack she will shoot pet bats out of her staff at enemies. The first bat shoots forward like a bullet causing decent damage if it hits it’s target. After that, the pet bat will surround the enemy for a while biting them and doing more damage over time. Her other basic attack is called Bat Swarm and will summon a maelstrom of bat damage. This attack never has a direct upgrade for it, yet after all upgrades have been purchased, it still does a good deal of damage and has a good area of effect. I don’t remember if it started out that effective and large, but if so, this will be the attack you want to use early on. The third attack comes after an upgrade and it’s called Go Batty! This attack allows Bat Spin to transform into a giant bat. Once in that form, the Attack 1 button can be used to bite (melee) and Attack 2 can be used to screech (ranged). The screech sends out sonar waves all around Bat Spin. The range isn’t that far, but since it’s all around Bat Spin, it works rather well to get rid of surrounding enemies. The other upgrades can add some useful abilities to Bat Spin. The Healing Bite will allow her to regain some HP from her pet bats. With this upgrade, Bat Spin can walk over the pet bats that are left behind and if those bats had already bitten an enemy, she will gain some HP back. The Brawny Bats upgrade will allow the pet bats to last longer, do more damage, and attack more often. Colony of Bats will increase the maximum number of pet bats which will increase all of the previous upgrades just by having more pet bats around. 
All of these upgrades together mean that Bat Spin can start doing more passive damage over time and heal herself by collecting those pet bats back.
Bat Spin has two choices when it comes to choosing her specialized path. You can either gain three giant helper bats with the Pet Purveyor upgrade or improve her Bat Form abilities with the Bat Betterment path. We chose the Pet Purveyor path only because I didn’t really like the attacks of the Bat Form upgrade. With this path each upgrade adds a giant pet bat that will continuously fly around Bat Spin and give her different abilities. Mr. Dizzy will stun and confuse enemies. Mr. Blocky will protect Bat Spin by deflecting projectiles. Finally, Mr. Bitey will do extra biting damage. Basically if you stand still in a group of enemies, these three bats will do all the work and keep Bat Spin fairly well protected. If you use your bat attack as well, then more of the smaller pet bats will surround enemies also doing damage over time and healing Bat Spin when she re-collects those bats. So this combination can be powerful. The Bat Betterment path sounds like it too would be useful. The Bat-tle Cry upgrade gives the screech attack extra damage and powers up the pet bats. The Ultimate Bat Squad upgrade gives you more pet bats and gives them additional powers. It would be interesting to know what those “additional powers” are. The final upgrade called Chiropteran Call will allow the bite attack to shoot out three additional pet bats. This sounds interesting as it is those pet bats that will help Bat Spin regenerate health. After you find her Soul Gem in level 8 – Telescope Towers, you’ll be able to purchase the Great Balls of Bats! upgrade. Holding Attack 1 will create a giant ball of bats that you can launch at your enemies. It looks almost like a bowling ball as it rolls through and past enemies in it’s path. It does OK damage, but it’s a pretty large ball and will dish that damage out to anyone that touches it.
Overall Bat Spin is more than she appears to be. She starts with just a few bat infused moves, and ends up with an army of bats who all work to help Bat Spin. From attacking her enemies to providing Bat Spin with some healing power, these bats are definitely the key to Bat Spin’s success. Her Bat Attack can keep most enemies away, and when they get too close she has several options to deal with those. Whether you use her Bat Form, her large pet bats, or you rather conjure up a maelstrom or Ball of Bats, she is well equipped to deal with anything that comes her way. If you let Bat Spin reach her full potential you will probably be surprised with how good she is.
SkylanderNutts gives Bat Spin…
9.0 out of 10
Bat Spin Video Review
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