‘Skylanders: Trap Team’ Offering Gearshift As Preorder DLC Bonus

Skylanders: Trap Team is coming up with an innovative new way to generate even more interest in this iteration than the previous titles in the Skylanders series.

Kotaku is reporting that Gearshift, a character from Trap Team is going to be made available ahead of its normal release time if gamers preorder her.

Gearshift isn’t due to hit store shelves until 2015, but if Skylanders fans preorder her along with Trap Team they will be able to get her when the game releases on October 5.

Technically, the makers of the game are calling the figure downloadable content, and have explained this by pointing out that each figure unlocks the character in the game. If Trap Team players don’t have the Gearshift figure, they can’t play as her inside Skylanders.

Game Informer has said that Activision is allowing gamers to preorder this character starting today and will be showing Skylanders: Trap Team off next week at E3.

Activision has also released an explanation of this new character as well as shed some light on what she can do.

In the game, Gearshift was created on the Tech island of Metallana by King Mercurus, who considered the young robot to be his own daughter. But rather than performing royal duties, Gearshift preferred to spend her time in the oily depths of the kingdom among its workers, secretly tending to the huge subterranean machines. When her father discovered this, he was furious – but then a squadron of Undead Stormriders suddenly attacked. Learning that these marauders wanted to capture her father, Gearshift used her knowledge of the labyrinth below to hide him. Seizing the emblem of her people – The Great Gear – she used it to fight the Stormriders, inspiring the workers to rise up. Together, they drove the Stormriders out of Metallana and saved the kingdom. For this, Gearshift was made part of the Trap Team, using her new awesome Traptanium-forged gear to help defend Skylands.

The ability to get one of the members of this new squad will likely generate plenty of excitement all on its own, especially since not preordering means fans of the Skylanders series will have to wait several months to get their hands on her if they don’t order now.

The character being brand new to the gaming universe is going to have plenty of Cache as well. Skylanders: Trap Team is going to be available for just about every console come October 5.