A couple of weeks ago, I posted “Transformers Invade the Nintendo DS”, about the coming games Transformers Autobots and Decepticons for the Nintendo DS. Well the games were released, and last weekend I picked up the games.

I went to the Gamestop store near my house after work on Saturday looking for both versions. They only had the Decepticons version in stock. The sales associate told me that they only got in two copies on Thursday, June 21, one Autobot and the other Decepticons. He also told me that the Autobot version was on loan to an employee, and that if I came back the next day, it maybe available. I said ok, but I thought to myself . . . why did he tell me that? They are not supposed to tell customers that employees check out a game product to play and then turn around it still sell it as new. And, the sales associate also said that I could also try F.Y.E. across the street, he did mention something about not being supposed to send me to the competition. I was like ok, and said to him that maybe they won’t have it. I bought the Decepticon version and went to F.Y.E. to see if they had the Autobot version and they did have it! But they also only had two copies, one Autobot and one Decepticons. I bought the Autobot version and was happy that I was able to score both versions. On the way home, I thought it was odd that two stores receive two copies and in the span of three days, no one in my neighborhood but I bought the games. Am I the only one who knew the game was coming out? Am I the only one who is a Transformers fan with a Nintendo DS? Who knows, but I am glad that the game where there waiting for me to buy them?

Ok, after I get my new games home, I try out the Decepticons first. While I did see screen shots of what the game looks like, playing it is a totally different thing.

The game is not a side scroller or first person, it is a third person perspective in which your view is behind the Transformer you are controlling. It is very similar to Super Mario 64 DS in this regard. The environments have a 3D look and have much detail in way of common objects you would find in an urban setting. The robots are also rendered well too.

In playing the Decepticons version, the goals are pretty much evil. Defeat and destroy the Autobots, destroy the humans and their property. You can not destroying big buildings. Those will only suffer scorch marks from weapons’ fire. But smaller things like bus shelters, dumpsters, phone booths, lamp and traffic poles, Highway and other roadside signs, trees, and cars of various types can be picked up and thrown or used to smash other destructible items with.

I then tried out the Autobots version, the goals of this version are more-hero like and involve protecting humans and their property. Any destruction of property as an Autobot or Decepticon will have the police responding in force, when this happens, one can transform into vehicle mode to run and hide until the heat dies down or stay and destroy the police vehicles. The two games seem similar in initial levels, which make sense as the missions in both games are located in the same places. But, later on in Decepticons there will be exclusive desert levels and in Autobots, exclusive Arctic levels.

Interesting thing is, when you make the robot jump, landing on the pavement or roof top will make the ground or roof crumble under its feet. But the rooftop will not collapse, weird huh?

And it would not be Transformers of the robot can’t transform, so with a tap of the Autobot or Decepticon logo on the touch screen the transforming is accomplished into vehicle mode or back into robot mode.

The game itself is also really cool in that it is not on rails forcing you to stick to certain parts of the city map. I found that you can go anywhere on the map you want. But, in order to progress in levels, missions have to be completed. In robot mode, you can walk up and down city streets and climb up sides of buildings and then jump from rooftop to rooftop. In vehicle mode, you can drive around the streets on sidewalks, and through parking lots. Oh, also in vehicle mode, you can drive off rooftops without taking damage, cool huh? I think so. There is also flying vehicles, jet airplanes and helicopters to fly around in to get that tactical advantage.

The game also has an online game function, but not one in the usual setup. There is a server which sets up a game mission every day for what they call the “AllSpark Wars” battle.

The missions are pulled from the mission’s library built into the game. Each player wishing to take part in the battle logs in via WI-FI, gets the mission, then logs off to play it. Upon finishing the mission, the player logs back onto the server to upload the score to the server. This score is added to the total for the side represented by the version of the game being played. By the next day, the results are totaled and a new mission is ready to be downloaded by players, along with award points for completing the previous days missions.

Here is a special treat, I made a couple of videos of the game play:

Lots of movie-based videos games don’t turn out well, especially when it comes to a handheld system with certain hardware limitations. I took a gamble on Transformers for the Nintendo DS by buying both versions within days of the release and not waiting for official reviews to declare that the game is a success or a bomb. After a week of game play every day, I am glad that the games turned as good as it is and I say that they are some keepers for my game library. I really like Transformers for the Nintendo DS. The only bad thing I found with playing the game, it is a spoiler to what take’s place in the movie, as the game somewhat follows the story line.

4 Responses to “A Week with Transformers DS”

1. 1 Judie Lipsett Hughes Jul 2nd, 2007 at 7:10 pmI can’t wait to see this movie…Sarah is at an early screening as I type this.
2. 2 Allen Hong Jul 2nd, 2007 at 8:17 pmWow! Sarah is soooooooo lucky!!!
3. 3 Judie Lipsett Hughes Jul 2nd, 2007 at 10:39 pmOkay – her review, “You have to see it, it was absolutely stunning and amazing, stupid little romance between the guy and the girl, but other than that stupid little part, it was amazing, absolutely amazing.” Well, there you have it.
4. 4 Allen Hong Jul 3rd, 2007 at 6:04 amI think this movie will do for robots, what Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs.

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