Transformers

"Atari Creates a Transformers Game that is More Than Meets The Eye"

I've just recently started to develop a new interest in the Transformers. I grew up with their show when they were under the name of Beast Wars collecting action figures and ones that came before them. With the release of the new Transformers movie coming out as a present for our nations birth date, I thought I would start to go back to my roots and open up my mind for the older Transformers. This is part of the reason that I decided to get Transformers for the Playstation 2.

The story in this game isn't exactly the meat of the game, but that's possibly a good thing for fans and gameplay hunters. The story goes that Optimus Prime and Megatron were fighting one day on Cybertron, and then smack in the middle of a battle, a transmission shows that the minicons are on the planet Earth and the Transformers on both sides set off on a crusade to find them. Strangely enough though, the Decepticons are the only ones who bring a full army with them, aka. The Decepticlones, while the Autobots are the only ones who set off on the Great Exodus to fight for the good side. Oh well, I guess Atari didn't want to have too many characters involved in the story of this game and just wanted to only focus on making a good game. At least they do manage to accomplish this.

This game is supposedly based on the anime Transformers: Armada, though I've never really gotten around to watching it that much. I do remember there were human characters in the show, but it's probably a good thing that they weren't included. Their involvement would not have been a bad idea however. Their involvement could have offered a possible form of secondary gameplay where you could see their relationships grow. But I suppose Atari thought the idea was too “Japanese” for its intended American audience.

On the subject of the game's graphics, the graphics are very well done and finely detailed for a Playstation 2 game. The Transformers are well polished and even give off the suns reflection when they walk under it. The stages are just as well made, there are several different stages which include the winter stages, the oceanic stages, the jungle stages, even one that takes place on Cybertron itself. The stages aren't exactly perfect though, while they are indeed bright, colorful and detailed, they fall a bit short of looking absolutely realistic.

Talking about music and sound, the sound is well executed and explosions occur very often so be prepared to hear these a lot. The sounds are realistic and they sound like a real transformers battle is actually taking place. The music however, doesn't really have the same effect. The music is mostly there for background filler and it's not bound to get stuck in your head when you hear it. There is however some unlockable music that you can find when you retrieve the datacons, such as a neat remix of the Transformers theme song.

To start on the gameplay, you get a choice of three autobots: Optimus Prime, Red Alert, and Hot Shot. They all have their special advantages in terms of speed, health, and power. Optimus Prime is my personal favorite because he can take a lot of punishment from the decepticlone army and packs a powerful punch as well. For a balance of power and speed, Optimus's right hand man Red Alert is reporting for duty. If speed is your need, then Hot Shot is your bot (LOL that rhymes). Probably another one of the downsides is that you can't play as the decipticons. I remember this Beast Wars demo that I played as a kid, it was possible to play as the villains in that one.

Despite how cool this game actually is, it is not without any negative points even though I've mentioned some earlier. Besides the weak story, the “not all realistic backgrounds” and inability to play as the villains, another problem is its difficulty. This game, even on Recruit level, this game is about as hard as rusty nails run through a wood plank. Thankfully this is only because the enemies are challenging and not due to awful controls even if they are a bit awkward at points. Trust me, even if you set the game on Recruit level, you will constantly be shot by what seems like every decepticlone on the map. As a result, chances are you will die…. A LOT! This doesn't get much better with the boss's either, the boss's will constantly pwn your iron rear axle.

Despite the difficulty, Atari was VERY forgiving when it came to how your level would progress. You could die in a boss battle, but if you do, you won't have to start the whole level all over again or lose any minicons that would have been useful. You start off right where you saved with full energon and your autobot is rip, rearing and ready to roll out. You can die continuously and you won't have to suffer any consequences, and you can only gain from these experiences by forming a better strategy for what to do next time. Another redeeming factor is the fact that this game isn't so hard that it's suffering to play through. Jut like the Megaman games and others out there, this game is as hard as slag to play but it's equally as fun. So don't worry about tearing your hair out when you are faced with problems against your enemies.

Anyway, there is more to the gameplay than meets the eye (LAWL pun). You don't just go around and blast the living energon out of every enemy that moves, you also get to search for the minicons hidden around the levels and strengthen your Autobots. Finding new minicons can be a big help when fighting the hordes of decepticlones and some you find later in the game will even get you into places that you couldn't reach before. Besides the minicons, there are also little datacons that you find throughout the stages. As I said earlier, you can use them to unlock hidden extras in the game such as new music and a comic that should have something to do with a real story. I haven't given much time to see what the extras are in their completeness yet, but I'll be sure to see what they all are some other day.

Overall, I would say that this game is truly worth playing and action players are very likely to be pleased. It's not a perfect game entirely, but it is a good one that's worth giving a shot. This game also serves as a beacon for many fans out there. If the movie and the game do manage to be terrible (not that I'm hoping they will be), we will always have this game to hold on to so we can know out fandom in not in total vain. So I leave you now (not permanently) saying… “Autobots! Transform and Roll Out!”

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/07