Transformers: The Game – WII – Review

Back in the 80’s I was a huge fan of
the Transformers animated series for a few years. I watched the television shows
whenever they were on, had several of the action figures and proudly went to the
theater to see the movie. After the movie was released I thought the television
series went in the toilet and my interest in the Transformers became a fading
memory. Just because my interest faded that didn’t stop the Transformers from
evolving and growing over the years. New action figures and new shows kept the
Transformers name alive. Now the Transformers are getting another chance at the
big screen, this time as a big budget live-action movie. Along with the movie we
get the official game crossover available for all major platforms including the
Wii.

The first item that really caught my
attention in the game wasn’t the Wii controls, the plot centering upon the
retrieval of the AllSpark by the Autobots or Decepticons, or the impressive
visuals. Nope, none of that really caught me attention. The gameplay is what
made me take notice of the game since I couldn’t believe I was playing another
Grand Theft Auto (GTA)-inspired game. The driving segments, the design of the
map and the mission structure all scream GTA.  At this point I am close to being
fed up with playing GTA clones. Honestly I would have never imagined playing a
GTA game with Transformers. But I guess that’s why I don’t work in the marketing
and development department for a game publisher.

The game lets you play as either the
Autobots or the Decepticons, with the storyline for each faction being similar
but the gameplay being slightly different. The Autobot portion of the game
centers upon the mission based aspects where you travel from point A to point B
to protect other characters in the game, avoid getting captured by the
authorities and to destroy various Decepticons. The Decepticon missions focus
upon what I thought the game was originally going to be about:
destruction. Instead of worrying about causing damage to buildings as an Autobot,
the Decepticon portion is probably the best part of the game due to the sheer
destruction you get to unleash. Almost everything in the game world can be
destroyed which makes for a fun playground of crumbled buildings, flatten cars
and smashed robots.

One endlessly frustrating portion of
the game was the action zone limits of the game. When you start fighting other
Transformers in the game you have to stay within a certain boundary during
combat. If you go outside of the boundary, the game will slowly start to
countdown to zero. If you fail to make it back within the boundary limits then
you will fail the mission. This wouldn’t be a big problem if the controls made
it easier to stay inside the boundaries. During combat I would always find my
Transformers flying away, outside of the boundary after getting hit. It didn’t
help that the boundary was always in a state of flux since the character you’re
chasing after or in combat with was always moving around. Another point of
frustration with the boundaries has to do with the destructible environments. It
never seemed to fail that I would always run into the one tree in the city that
could withstand the impact of a multi-ton Transformer.

The Wii controls are probably what
most of you would expect from a Wii game. The game requires the use of the Wii
Remote and the Nunchuk to control all functions of your transformer. Both the
Remote and the Nunchuk can be used to perform attacks with a quick swiping
motion. The Remote does have a primary and secondary fire attack assigned to the
A and B buttons.  The controls might sound easy enough but there a few quirks
that become issues during combat.

The camera angle never seems to be
in the right place at the right time, which is a big problem during combat.
Correcting the camera angle requires pressing the minus button on the remote. It
would have been nice to have the camera adjustment assigned to a major button
such as the C or Z button the Nunchuk.  Another issue with the controls are the
jump and transform options which are assigned to the control pad. Pressing down
on the control pad performs a jump while pressing up transforms you to/from
vehicle or robot. During the heat of combat I found my robot jumping or
transforming at precisely the wrong moment.  No, there isn’t an option in the
game to adjust the controls.

Anyone looking for a true
Transformers game will only be disappointed with this game. I’m sure die-hard
Transformer loyalists are probably losing their minds because of the redesign of
the robots and gaming freaks could lose their minds because of the GTA
influences. The redundant gameplay never really gets going except for when
you’re playing as a Decepticon. Even then the gameplay gets repetitive after
just a few levels. Transformers: The Game for the Wii offers just another
sub-standard movie to console port that has a few good moments but enough
lacking moments to keep the entire game down.

Gameplay: 5.0
Besides the GTA similarities the gameplay revolves around making it through
various missions to battle a boss. The boss battles are another frustration
since you can never actually hurt the boss at first. You have to throw something
at the boss several times before the boss is weak enough so you can attack it.
The boss battles, along with the out-of-bounds elements of the action zones and
repetitive GTA-style missions, keeps the Transformers stuck in a rut.

Graphics: 7.5
The visuals in the game are the one shining star due to the detail of the robots
and destructible environments. Even on the Wii seeing your Transformer destroy
an entire city can be a thing of beauty.

Sound: 7.5
The music and sound effects in the game did a good job of setting the tone of
the game. All of the music reminded me of orchestrated tracks from a major
motion picture but I cannot confirm if these are the same tracks in the movie.
The voice -over work was great as well with actors from the new movie and from
the original 80’s series providing their voices.

Concept: 4.5
Once again, why did my Transformers get mixed together with GTA? What’s going to
happen when someone decides to make a Star Wars Transformers game?

Difficulty: Medium
The hardest part of the game is getting used to action zones and the controls
during boss battles. If you can manage to figure these out (or at least make
due) then you shouldn’t have any problems with the game.

Overall: 6.1
If you’re not expecting a blockbuster hit of a game then you won’t be
disappointed with Transformers. If you want a game that will become an instant
classic then Transformers: The Game is not the game for you.