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Developer: Melbourne House Publisher: Atari Genre: Action Region: NTSC Format:  Release Date: 05 May 04 User Rating 10 (2 votes) |
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The Story
The year is 2010 and the war for supremacy between the Autobots and Decepticons continues. On Earth, a group of kids find a Transformer ship that crash landed long before the dawn of mankind. Accidentally, they activate the ship's long-dormant cargo of Mini-cons, not knowing that the Autobots and Decepticons once schemed to keep this ship and its payload from ever being found.
Mini-cons possess a unique ability to make ordinary Transformers extremely powerful - in fact, both Autobots and Decepticons tried to use them during the Great War. When the ferocity of the war grew out of control, a truce was called and a decision was made to rid the war of these dangerous devices: All Mini-cons were placed into a ship and sent drifting into space for millions of years. Now the Mini-cons have been awakened are on Earth and the Transformers want them back!
Hands-on Impressions
This week I received a preview copy of Atari's Transformers, a title that really hasn't got a whole lot of attention, but should be gaining some in the next couple of weeks before its release. Transformers is basically a Mech style action game that most would think would be for kids, but in fact ends up being quite the opposite.
Although the game is still a few weeks short from completion, the results thus far has already impressed me greatly. First of all, I love Mech games, and having fond memories of the famed cartoon series, I absolutely love this game, especially when it has its own spin on the genre. On my playthourgh, the game runs very smoothly, with no hickups or drops in the framerate. To keep things interesting and engaging, the game requires quite a bit of strategy in completing the missions, which is certainly a welcome departure to the tired re-hash of shooting everyting on screen. From the mission available in this preview copy, it looks as though things are shaping up very nicely for the game.
In the game, you have the option of controlling one of three Autobots - Optimus Prime, Red Alert and Hot Shot. Each have their own differentiating characteristcs. Optimus is the slowest of the three, but compensates that by his capacity to dish out and receive greater amount of damage. Hot Shot is fast, but weak, and in the middle is Red Alert, who balances the whole equation. Controlling your character is quite simple, with all face buttons adequately utilized.
The gameplay comes at a pretty fast pace but not an overly fast one, it seems to be working just right. The ability to "Transform" is got to be one of the biggest selling points for the game, and it's great to see that Atari did a nice job of making it a very fun transformation. No doubt this ability will be essential as you'll need to traverse the environment in vehicle mode, and transform to engage enemies.
The graphics of the game are really quite impressive, and I would imagine by time for release we are going to have a game that is going to be quite visually impressive. So far the models are pretty nicely detailed and truly have a lot of great visual environments. Overall I am going to have to say with a few improvements your going to find Transformers to be quite a nice looking title.
Overall Transformers is a game that will definitely one to look forward to come Mid-May, this one is going to be sure to make quite a few people happy.
Features
- Play as OPTIMUS PRIME, RED ALERT or HOT SHOT
- Instantly convert from robot to vehicle mode on the battlefield
- Blast through boss battles against MEGATRON, STARSCREAM, CYCLONUS and TIDAL WAVE
- Power-up the AUTOBOTS with over 40 unique weapons and combat abilities power-ups including Homing Missiles, Rocket Launchers, Glide, Stealth and Tractor Beam
- Destroy armies of all-new "Decepticlone" Soldiers, Spider Tanks, Sentry Drones and Drop Ships
Stay with us as we count the days for the title's release on 11th May 2004.
