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.

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.