Michael McNutt 
Lias and I tackle the last Swap Force arena battle that comes with the main game called Perfect Captain. As the title suggests, on this level, you must complete it without taking a hit. See how we did.
Lias and I are back to take a look at the 11th Arena in Skylanders Swap Force. Today we are playing “Exploding Snowmen”. It’s another level on the Frost Elves’ flying ship. Lias is using Trap Shadow and I am using Legendary Night Shift. Both Skylanders fall in between the suggested 11-15 level range. Check it out and let us know what you think of Exploding Snowmen.
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Free Ranger is a new Swappable Air Skylander for Skylanders Swap Force. Free Ranger is a bird who spent his early years chasing storms. He chased hurricanes, rode lightning and spun inside tornadoes. That’s how he perfected his spin ability. One day he was chasing a dark and ominous storm when Master Eon caught him and taught him of the darkness in Skylands. Free Ranger then became a protector of Cloudbreak Islands by becoming a Skylander Swap Force member. Free Ranger’s figure embodies his backstory. His legs are in a constant spinning vortex and his hair is in a lightning bolt shaped pony tail. His light blue, yellow and orange coloring complement his character well, by just making him look light. He also carries a couple of Stormblades in his hands to give him a powerful spinning attacks. Overall, he fits the image you might have for an air element Skylander. He is a bird who spins and has several lightning and tornado based air attacks. Free Ranger comes with the 3DS version of the game. He also has a special Legendary version which changes his paint scheme to the legendary black and gold.
Free Ranger starts with a couple attacks you would expect from looking at his character. He has a fast melee attack with his Stormblades in both hands, and a spinning attack that sucks enemies in to damage them. After some upgrades Free Ranger will be able to shoot bolts of lightning from his eyes, and his Stormblades will send a wave of air shooting at his enemies. His spinning will become faster, more powerful and pull in enemies from farther away.
As a swappable character there are two different upgrade paths to choose, one for his body and one for his legs. The body paths let you focus either on stronger Stormblade attacks by adding combos or a stronger lightning attack by being able to charge the bolts of lightning he can shoot. The leg paths are actually pretty powerful for Free Ranger. One path allows you to add lightning bolts to your tornado attack to further damage your enemies. The other path adds the ability to shoot out a tornado once your normal tornado spin attack ends. None of Free Ranger’s attacks are super flashy or unique. They are pretty much what you would expect from a spinning air element character. However, that doesn’t make him weak or not fun to play with. Sucking up enemies in tornadoes and firing lightning is very satisfying.
Also as a swappable character he has two soul gem abilities. Neither are very exciting or creative which is a bit of a disappointment for such an expensive upgrade. Most soul gem abilities offer some new crazy attacks. For Free Ranger though, one upgrade increases the damage of the Stormblades by adding lighting damage to them, while the other upgrade fills the tornado attack with lightning damage.
All in all, Free Ranger is a very solid character. He is sort of the stereotypical air elemental “storm” character with tornado and lightning attacks. He’s still worth owning, especially if you want the 3DS version of the game.
| Card Stats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack: | 115 | Max Health | 280 | |
| Defense: | 150 | Speed | 43 | |
| Speed: | 110 | Armor | 18 | |
| Luck: | 100 | Critical Hit | 8 | |
| Elemental Power | 25 | |||
| Card Stats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack: | 115 | Max Health | 280 | |
| Defense: | 150 | Speed | 42 | |
| Speed: | 110 | Armor | 18 | |
| Luck: | 100 | Critical Hit | 8 | |
| Elemental Power | 25 | |||
| Body Attacks | |||
| Stormblade Slash | Press Attack 1 to slash at enemies with powerful Stormblades. | Free | |
| Eyes of the Storm | Press Attack 3 to shoot a bolt of lightning from the eyes, stunning the first enemy and chaining to others. | 300 Gold | |
| Charged Blades | Press Attack 1 to slash with more powerful Stormblades that do increased damage. | 800 Gold | |
| Gale Slash | Press Attack 1 three times to send a wave of powerful air at enemies. | 1000 Gold | |
| Wind Slasher Path | |||
| Slicing Storm | Hold Attack 1 to charge Stormblades, release for a devastating combo attack. | 1500 Gold | |
| Feathered Fury | Slicing Storm does increased damage. | 2000 Gold | |
| Storm Focus Path | |||
| Lightning Strikes Thrice | Hold Attack 3 to charge Eye of the Storm, release to shoot a larger bolt of lightning. | 1500 Gold | |
| Charged Gigawatt Bolt | Lightning Strikes Thrice does increased damage. More powerful than lightning. | 2000 Gold | |
| Soul Gem Ability | |||
| Storming Stormblades | Press Attack 1 to attack with more powerful Stormblades that deal extra lightning damage. | 3500 Gold | |
| Leg Attacks | |||
| Ride the Wind | Press Attack 2 to become a tornado and damage nearby enemies. | Free | |
| Approaching Storm | Hold Attack 2 to become a tornado, speed is increased while the tornado is active | 300 Gold | |
| Wind Powered | Becoming a tornado will last longer | 800 Gold | |
| Tornado Vacuum Boost | Tornadoes now pull in enemies from further away. | 1000 Gold | |
| Lightning Linquist Path | |||
| Lightning Nova | Blast all nearby enemies with a powerful lightning bolt when becoming a tornado. | 1500 Gold | |
| Nova Flash | Lightning Nova does increased damage. | 2000 Gold | |
| Tornado Thrower Path | |||
| Wild Tornado | When becoming a tornado ends, a powerful tornado is shot out, damaging all enemies in the way. | 1500 Gold | |
| Twisted Twister | More powerful tornadoes are shot forward that do increased damage to enemies. | 2000 Gold | |
| Soul Gem Ability | |||
| Charged Winds | Hold Attack 2 to become a tornado filled with lightning, dealing damage to all enemies in the way. | 3500 Gold | |
It seems like I am often surprised by Toys R Us weekly adds which seem to often contain a brand new released Skylander Figure. This week it happened again. Jade Fire Kraken available now at your local Toys R Us or via the website. I would call before you go though as only one of the stores in my area actually had the figure in stock. Toys R Us is also running a little sale on the new figure. If you buy Jade Fire Kraken, then you can get any other one regularly priced Skylander figure for 50% off. The website state restrictions apply but listed over 130 eligible figures, so other than figures that are on clearance, I’m not sure what other figures are excluded. We picked ours up today and I believe that was the last named Swap Force figure we needed? Time to start saving up for Trap Team!
Update: Also found out that Jade Fire Kraken is also out at Best Buy
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Today Conner unboxes Turbo Jet-Vac. Check out what he thinks of the new Jet-Vac compared to the old one.
Today Conner unboxes a new water Skylander in our Punk Shock Unboxing! Check out this new core water Skylander for Swap Force and let us know what you think of Punk Shock.
There is going to be another Skylanders Day at GameStop coming this Saturday June 21st. This means that single character packs will be buy one get one free. Also, all starter packs will be 50% off, including the GameStop exclusive Dark Starter Packs. GameStop also is giving away the Swap Force Skylander Wind-Up with pre-orders of Skylanders Trap Team ONLY on the 21st. He was a pretty cool figure previously only available in the Tower of Time Adventure Pack. He has just been released in a single pack. I don’t know if you will get Wind-Up on the 21st or have to wait until you pick up your pre-order. For more information check out GameStop’s ad here.
Conner is back with another unboxing. We’ve been busy with vacation, and then I was busy with E3 and our other site GameNutts.com so we haven’t been able to post as much as we would like, but hopefully it will start picking up now. Check out the Scorp Unboxing and see what Conner thinks of him. Then let us know what you think about Scorp!
I’ve been looking for a while for Fire Bone Hot Dog. And to my surprise, I found him in stock at goHastings.com. Not Best Buy, not Amazon, not Toys R Us. I ordered one skeptically because there was no pic and he can’t seem to be found anywhere else, but lo and behold he showed up. So if you are looking for Fire Bone Hot Dog, he’s $9.99 here at goHastings.com. Get him while he lasts.
Jawbreaker revealed today by Activision at E3. This new Tech Trap Master fights with huge Traptanium gold fists. He looks sort of like a larger more powerful version of Stump Smash. Visit his character page for more details as we get them.
For other E3 game coverage, check out our sister site GameNutts.com
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