Transformers: Autobots

My love for Transformers extends itself a little further than that of the average nostalgic man-child. The original animated movie is still one of my favorite rainy day solutions, and I'd be lying if I was to say I didn't have more than one bin collecting dust in my closet loaded with shape-changing robots. So, when the series retread finally came along at the hands of Michael Bay, I think I took it a little better than most. I don't mind the cheesy flames on Optimus Prime or the lack of Soundwave these days; I can take the bad with the good. When the Transformers DS titles, Autobots and Decepticons, landed in my hands, I realized I'd be doing just that thing. There's a lot of bad in these games, but if you take it with the good, you'll find yourself enjoying a licensed property that's been given some pretty unique gameplay.

The limitations of the DS come up more than once when discussing Transformers, and there are a few reasons why. The game is a genuine sandbox-type exploration title, in which you can explore a large city and, for the most part, do as you wish. There are missions beacons located about to progress events along, but ignoring them will allow you to explore, destroy, or interact with various other objects located around the level. Players can leap upon rooftops causing massive craters as they bound along, or they can quickly transform to their automobile form and zoom about as if they were playing Grand Theft Auto. It's not hard to take a look around and see, though, that this is obviously a DS title. There are no people roaming the streets, the cities are unfortunately plain and lacking detail, and the draw distance is so close that you'll occasionally go zooming past a Decepticon or Autobot to turn around and find them vanished into the ether. Limitations of the hardware, indeed!

The game does allow your Transformer to increase in stats, as well as abilities throughout the game, but I rarely took use of anything more than what I had in the first couple levels. Clobbering an opponent down to nothing with a lamppost or a passing car is really enough to make it through the game for the most part. Add to that some ranged shooting ability, and you're set to take on Megatron himself. The biggest battle you'll be fighting is with the camera, as it causes some awkward glitches, and it's slow enough to rotate that you'll find yourself getting pummeled while you're still looking for the enemy.

It's impressive enough to see a developer trying to attempt a sandbox-style game on the DS. It's doubly impressive that they're using the Transformers license (albeit the Bayformers one) to do so. Unfortunately, the time might not be ripe for such a game on such limited hardware, and sacrificing detail or splitting the experience into two halves, Autobots and Decepticons, seems the only way to see it done. This is a game specifically for fans, and even then I'd mention specifically fans of the new Transformers... or Peter Cullen. Did I mention he does brilliant voiceover work for the game? No? It sold me.