Having vanquished the evil
Decepticons in the 80’s, again in the 90’s as the beast war transformers and
then in the big budget action flick a couple of years ago, the Transformers
have been rebooted, again. This time, in lieu of over-the-top villains and the
serious no-nonsense business of saving the world, this reboot is quite a bit
more kid friendly. The story has been revamped, new characters have been
created and old ones either forgotten or completely remade. And as a child of
the 80’s I couldn’t be more disturbed about it. But ask my five- and
eight-year-old sons, and they will tell me that everything is perfect.
So there you go, age 24 years and
your idea of cool is no longer cool. Instead, Optimus Prime isn’t as powerful
as he used to be, Bumblebee is a wisecracking jokester, Prowl is a robot ninja
and instead of Ironhide, there is a big giant robot named Bulkhead who may
have been a Transformer originally, but I don’t recognize him. Now in the game
you only play as Optimus, Bumblebee and Bulkhead. Each has a specific use to
help complete the side-scrolling missions. Optimus can grapple on walls,
Bumblebee can jump around and Bulkhead can smash through certain obstacles.
Oh, and of course they can transform into their vehicles, although the
developers seemed less interested in making that a viable part of the story.
"I think the chilli dog hut… IS OVER
THERE!!!"
You essentially play as the three,
taking control of the Autobot that will get them through any one part of the
level, and surprisingly it works. Only by getting all three though whatever
current obstacle can you continue in the game. Its a novel idea that works out
pretty well. In fact, for a side-scrolling platform game, it works.
Unfortunately, there are some other "off" levels where you transform into the
car and must drive around in a third-person-type view. It really is
unnecessary, although I know why they did it; the driving portion of the game
really felt like an afterthought. Still, I suspect I would be complaining if
they had made the game the same side scroller all the way through, I mean you
don’t play a game with Transformers in it and not transform, right?
The controls are pretty well
realized; there are some times where you must use the stylus and the face
buttons at the same time, and that isn’t so great, but the rest of the time,
the action works well and keeps the pace brisk. This is a game aimed clearly
at the target audience, so there isn’t so much violence as there is
adventuring and figuring out how to overcome obstacles. It’s a surprisingly
fun game and one I can let my kids get into. You will, however, make spare
parts out of many other robots.
"Apparantly fly paper also attracts
Bumblebees!"
Graphically, Transformers does a
better than average job; the switch-on-the-fly characters look well and having
seen the cartoon the game is based on, I think they did a decent job of
rendering them and making them look cool enough for kids everywhere. The ample
polygon count and semi-cell-shading gives the game the appropriate look of a
kids cartoon. Good lighting effects when needed.
Surprisingly there are the voices
from the cartoon featured in the game. I had almost given up hope for these
licensed games either forgoing voice work or going with somebody who kind of
sounds like the original character. Good sound effects as well.
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Gameplay: 6.7
A slight misstep here and there,
but otherwise a tightly worked game.
Graphics: 7.2
A pseudo cel-shaded game that
keeps it looking good for all the fans of the series.
Sound: 7.8
Voice actors from the show make
good on the material.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Concept: 7.4
Pretty good idea, keeping things a
bit simpler creating engaging gameplay.
Overall: 7.1
A good game to get for your child
who is Transformer crazy; normally these licensed games turn out to be nothing
more then garbage but here is a rare treat.
