When the opportunity presented itself to review Transformers Animated The Game for the Nintendo DS, I jumped at the chance. You see, both of my boys, Nikolai (age 7) and Caleb (age 4) are big fans of the Transformers Franchise thanks in part to my wife, Tonya’s younger brother, Uncle Chris.  Because of him, the boys have seen the first three seasons of the original cartoon on DVD along with The Beast Wars, and let’s not forget the Transformer movie.  They also have various incarnations of the action figures, so though I wouldn’t call us experts, I would say we do have a fair grasp of the subject matter for this review.

More Than Meets The Eye?

Transformers Animated The Game is based on Transformers Animated the series, which premiered Dec. 26, 2007 on the Cartoon Network here in the US.  Now I’m not going to give an in depth review of the show, but suffice it to say it features, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and others battling it out in mid 21st Century Detroit, known as Robot City.  I’ve only seen a couple episodes and found the animation literally lacking the ‘edginess’ of the original series.  Moreover, Nik and Caleb haven’t really clamored over watching the show, so I can only suspect it’s not part of their ‘Must See TV’ list. 

So I gave the game cartridge to Nik first, to allow him to assess the game before I gave it a try.  After a couple days of playing, I sat down with him and asked, “So, is there a lot of transforming action in the game?”  His response was a resounding, “Nope,” and he was right.  In the game, you get to control the actions of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Prowl, and of those four, only two of them, Optimus Prime and Prowl, actually transform during 3 particular levels of the 25-level-game.  However, in an attempt to throw us a bone, the game producers were sure to include mini-movies of all of the games characters transforming as part of the segues from one game level to the next. 

The fact that the Transformers really didn’t transform was a bit of surprise.  Still, I figured that left more room for Autobots versus the Decepticons battle action.  Imagine my surprise when there wasn’t much of that either. So, what exactly does that leave us with?  What kind of game is Transformers Animated The Game?  Well it’s a puzzle game, where the Autobots use teamwork and their special talents to solve a series of mazes to complete each of the 25 levels.  Along the way, they do battle the occasional ‘drone’ robot, but for the most part, it’s a thinking game.  Basic play involves Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead making their way through a 2 dimensional, multi-level factory-like structure, where they face various obstacles that they must overcome.  In their arsenal, they have their specific talents.  Optimus Prime has his Battle Axe, which he can swing or throw like a guided missile to hit specific objects.  He can also use his Vertical Grapple to snag horizontal girders, thus allowing him to move up and down on the screen.  Bumblebee can jump over objects and wall jump to scale elevator shafts.  He also has his Stingers, electrical discharges, which he can use to battle enemies and power electronic devices.  Bulkhead can punch down walls, move heavy objects, use his weight to activate floor pressure switches, and use his wrecking ball to hit switches that are in line of sight.  As the game player, you switch back and forth between the Autobots based on the situation they are facing. I’m told that game play is very much like the classic, The Lost Vikings video game.

On a select number of levels, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, or Prowl race through the streets of Detroit in order to complete a specific task.  This is the only time that either Optimus Prime or Prowl are allowed to transform from robot mode to vehicle mode and vice versa.

Aiding the Autobots are Rachet, who gives tutorials to the Autobots on how to use their specific talents to overcome obstacles, and the human girl, Sari Sumdac, who uses her special key to restore life to fallen Autobots.  Hindering the Autobots, besides the robot drones, are Megatron, who the Autobots must battle and overcome in two levels, and Lockdown, who faces Bumblebee and Prowl during the a couple of the chase levels through Detroit. 

As I pointed out before, the game features some videos of the characters transforming and it also features the actual voices from the television series.  The latter feature is nice to a point, however hearing the Autobots voice the same line over and over and over again when you switch from one character to another will begin to wear on the adult nerves.

Overall Impression

Nik enjoyed the game until he got to a point where he got stuck.  When I played the game I found myself stuck at the same spot and after I figured it out, I showed him the solution and he continued playing.  He told me that the game is fun to play, however it can be a little difficult for his age bracket.  He also said that discovering that the Autobots didn’t transform very much was a bit of a disappointment.  Therefore, he has decided to give Transformers Animated The Game for the Nintendo DS 80 Thumbs Up out of 100.  As for me, well after I discovered the game was more of a puzzle game than an action game, I found the game challenging and enjoyed the fact that it stimulated my thinking rather than my button pushing.   However, the cartooney-ness of the characters and the narratim-verbatim aspects of the dialog tended to wear at my enjoyment.  Thus, I’m giving the game 5 Dancing Elephants out of 8.

Parting Thoughts

If you are in the process of introducing your child to the Transformer Action figures, make sure to treat the instructions that come with figurine like gold.  Store them in a safe along side your most important documents.  Trust me, you will thank me the day your child comes up to you with a Transformer irreparably stuck between robot mode and vehicle, dinosaur, bug, boombox, or plant mode and says, “Can you transform this for me?”