If you’re not playing Skylanders yet, you should probably stop cosplaying as Giles Corey and crawl out from the rock under which you’ve been living. The critically acclaimed series not only grossed $2 billion last year, but it also expanded its scope immensely with the upcoming Skylanders Trap Team. In Skylanders Trap Team, Kaos has busted Cloudcracker Prison wide open, allowing all the villains of Skylanders to roam free, terrorizing the land. The game adds a new element of collectibility to the mix by allowing you to capture and command some of the game’s biggest baddest villains and making them fight for truth, justice, and the American way. At least I assume it’s the American way. Skylands might technically be a diplomatic neutral zone.

Anyway, the point is, we’ve been playing quite a bit of the game here at the Nerdist offices, but recently things took a turn for the weird when Malik, Jessica, and I sat down to play. We knew that NFC (near-field communication) technology was powerful, but this is a little ridiculous. Honest to goodness, though, this is exactly how it went down.

Who knew Malik could bust a move like that? Or that I could spit hot fire? Or that Jessica was scheming to find a way to illegally counterfeit money? (I had my suspicions…) Since we were already up at Toys For Bob’s envy-inducing office in Novato, CA, we figured we ought to interview Paul Reiche about the game, what’s next for the franchise, and all that sweet, sweet Skylanders jazz.

So there you have it, folks! While we heartily endorse playing video games like Skylanders Trap Team with your friends, it might be best if you don’t sit too close to the television lest you get sucked into the game and transported to Northern California on a Willy Wonka-like adventure. Actually, we had a lot of fun, so ignore everything I just said and sit as close as you like.

Skylanders: Trap Team is available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, iPad®, Kindle Fire and Android tablets on October 5.