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Skylanders: Swap Force - Rattle Shake
Score: 90%
Developer: Activision
Device Type: Accessory
Compatible With:


Stats:

Rattle Shake
Element:Undead
Health:280
Speed:43
Armor:12
Critical Hit:8
Elemental Power:25

Attacks:

As a swappable character, Skylanders: Swap Force - Rattle Shake has two sets of abilities that can be upgraded, the top and the bottom. Rattle Shake’s top half focuses on attacks related to launching snakes at opponents, while his coiled bottom half can both launch bone projectiles or perform a powerful stomp attack.

Rattle Shake’s top starts off with a gun that shoots snake venom at enemies, but you can upgrade the top to either shoot snakes themselves or even launch a companion into the field that stays where he lands, but has some ranged attacks of his own. The top half’s upgrade paths can either let Deputy Snake spit explosive acid and dole out some extra damage or you can upgrade Rattle Shake’s gun and let the springy snake you fire not only do more damage, but also poison the first enemy it bounces off of and cause them to take damage over time.

Rattle Shake’s tail starts off letting you attack enemies with your tail. This is quickly upgraded to shoot bouncing projectiles and then Rattle Shake performs a ground-pound attack.

The upgrade paths for the legs can let the player charge the projectile attack to release a large bone snake, and then later upgrade that bone snake to release multiple undead serpents. The other path adds a charging ability to the ground pound that launches Rattle Shake at an opponent and then after another upgrade causes tombstones to appear to cause a bit more damage on the field.

This character’s Soul Gem can be found at Cascade Glade and increases Rattle Shake’s armor for both the top and bottom. Buying the power for the top half also increases his critical hit stats, while the leg’s version increases their speed.


Features:
  • Compatible with:
    • Skylanders: Swap Force
  • Series 1

Comments:

Skylanders: Swap Force - Rattle Shake is both Undead and has the Bounce legs type and seems to be a good starter swappable character outside of the two that come with the game itself, that is. Actually, Rattle Shake comes with the Nintendo 3DS version of the game, so if you plan on picking up that version so that you can nab a Volcanic Eruptor, then you will have Rattle Shake on hand.

I found that while the added firepower of Rattle Shake’s snake gun can cause some damage, I tended to use and ultimately level up the Deputy Snake attack. The ability to summon something that attacks without me having to control it while I focus on whatever I wanted to was just too much of a temptation to pass up. As for Rattle Shake’s tail - both the bone snakes and the ground pound can do massive damage, but again - letting the snakes do their own work is a good tactic, especially if you find you have a lot of enemies to deal with.

The two undead swappable characters are Rattle Shake and Night Shift and on a similar point, the two bounce-based movement characters are Rattle Shake and Fire Kraken, so unless you are looking to get all of the swappable characters, you are left trying to decide which one to get. I feel like, of these four, Rattle Shake gets you the most bang for your buck, even if you buy the character individually and not with the 3DS game. The reason is because the console game comes with Blast Zone, a fire-type swappable character. This pretty much means you don’t have to get Fire Kraken if you are going for the minimalistic approach. With that choice removed, it seems like Rattle Shake ends up being the character that fills more needs without causing duplication. Again, this really only applies if you are trying to decide which of the 16 swappable characters to get.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

Related Links:



Multiplatform Skylanders: Swap Force - Ninja Stealth Elf Multiplatform Skylanders: Swap Force - Roller Brawl

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated