Nintendo DS

Transformers: Autobots

Overall, I have to say that I am very pleased with Transformers: Autobots. For a licensed game, I think they've done a very good job of creating a unique game experience that stays in step with the source material while creating a new enough experience to make the game fun. Plus the Allspark Wars function is awesome!

Transformers on DS is a good if unremarkable robot game. The gameplay is enjoyable though a touch too repetitive, but the game does have likeable characters and solid production values. There isn’t much different between both versions of the game, so like Pokemon, you’re getting 99.9% of the gameplay with either version.

Transformers works well on the DS, given its unique online features. While the combat can get a bit repetitive, Transformers is still a fairly impressive title for the DS.

It's definitely fun to romp around a city as a robot, to zoom around as a car, and to fly around as a plane...with the ability to switch it up on the fly. The addition of extensive voice over gives both games' a good amount of emotion. At the very least, the DS version gets these right. But when it comes to fighting as the robot or the vehicle, Transformers DS falls flat. The action and its technique really needs a bit of a tune-up, especially in the "defense" department, and the glitches that pop up from time to time are really hard to ignore. It's ultimately a better experience on the DS than Traveller's Tales games are on the console, but that doesn't entirely excuse the problems.

Si ce Transformers sur DS a le mérite d'offrir deux campagnes bien distinctes, l'une du côté des Autobots et l'autre du côté des Decepticons, la faible durée de vie du jeu nous fait regretter que les deux versions n'aient pas été rassemblées dans une seule cartouche histoire de ne pas obliger le joueur à se procurer les deux pour profiter de l'intégralité du contenu. Malgré tout, le soft reste plutôt satisfaisant et convainc davantage que ses homologues sur consoles de salon.

In either case, the games look nice, the voice acting is marvelous, and transforming into vehicles and beating up on other robots is fun. It's just too bad Activision chose to publish two individual versions instead of a single game. The dodgy camera and targeting may be annoying, but all the filler missions and the overall short length of the story suck a lot of the joy out of being a Transformer.

Transformers: Autobots is not a bad title, but is not a great title either. As far as movie tie-ins go this is definitely on the better end of the spectrum, but there are still some noticeable issues (such as occasional glitches, lacklustre combat and uninspiring missions objectives) that could probably have been rectified if the developers weren’t being forced to finish development in time for the movie’s silver-screen release.

The graphics are very similar to the DS version of Spiderman 3. That title had an impressive 3D engine, and Vicarious Visions' continued use of it was not a bad decision. The open-world style doesn't work well without a decent-sized world, and for a DS game Transformers is handled well. The players and enemies obviously took most of the work, as the environments leave something to be desired. The real star here is the voice acting. It is consistent, engaging and helpful without being repetitive or grating. The main problem with the title is its unbearable brevity. It takes much more to make a game worth a purchase for five to seven hours of gameplay, and there's just not that special something. Ultimately, Transformers is worth a look, but rent it or be ready to trade it in.

...a game of this size is better suited in a console environment. While there are fleeting moments of brilliant ideas, they just don't come into vision with the limitations of the DS hardware. The lack of detail and overall controls are frustrating, to say the least, and no amount of voiceover work is sufficient to make us recommend this title as a must have, even for the dedicated fanboy.