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"What's this, a decent Transformers game?"

I had very little hope for this one. After all, look at most of the other Commodore 64 games. With the seemingly endless string of really bad games, why would Transformers be any different? The bad NES game didn't give me much hope either. So I download and start the game up, and what do I get? A fun yet difficult Transformers game that is accurate to the show in more ways then one.

Story: N/A
I played this for a long time, and if there is any purpose or mission you must complete, I couldn't find it. You plow through an endless army of faceless decepticons, walking driving, and flying towards an unknown goal. Maybe the game's purpose is endless destruction.

Graphics: 8/10
Surprisingly good graphics for a system that has shown me to be so poor. The title screen features Soundwave, Laserbeak, and Jazz facing off and shooting, with the Transformers logo and autobot/decepticon symbols at the top. The coloring on all of this was really good. Soundwave was covered with purple blotches, but considering there are like 16 colors on this old system, I'll let it slide.

The levels and sprites are nicely detailed, with the coloring done very well on everyone(except Bumblebee, and this I won't let slide, because I know this ancient computer can handle yellow). Moving looks very smooth. One thing that did annoy me, though, is what happens when you die. If you fly a great distance and get destroyed, the screen won't instantly go back to the starting point, you must watch as it slowly goes through the level and back to the beginning. This to, I suppose, is thanks to the limited capabilities of the machine. The way the screen shakes around after the last one dies is a nice touch.

Sound: 7/10
The sound effects can sometimes get irritating, but not nearly as much as usual. Thankfully, the sound didn't consist of various toned high-pitched beeps. Rather, they were NES-esque in quality. Everything sounds like you'd expect it to, from gun shots to explosions to flying noises. There is one annoying beep though. When you press a button that doesn't do anything or does the incorrect function, you get the worst sound you can imagine.

Music: 10/10
The only music is the opening song. The opening song is the Transformers theme. It's plays exactly as the song really sounds. With the possible exception of the other C64 Transformers game(I haven't been able to find that yet), no other game has managed to get the Transformers theme right.

Controls: 1/10
Every C64 game is cursed with bad controls. Transforming is a real pain to pull off, in fact it's nearly impossible. Flying is no picnic either. You can't move up as you fly forward. First you must stop, move up, then fly forward again. It gets very annoying very fast, because this will usually result in you crashing frequently.

Gameplay/Fun Factor: 6/10
In the first episode of the series, the autobots could fly. In every episode after that(with the exception of S.O.S. Dinobots), they mysteriously forgot how to fly, having to drive all over the world and outrun the airborne decepticons. Ocean, it seems, remembers that the autobots were capable of flying. Firstly, this game is not easy. You run out of fire power fairly quickly with certain characters, and a lack of power-ups makes this a huge problem. Flying is a pain. You move way to quickly when flying, and when you mix this with the bad flight controls, death comes swiftly. One aspect I enjoyed was being able to choose characters. The differences in power is exactly what you'd expect from the characters if you've seen the show.

Rent/buy/download?
Download it if you're a Transformers fan like me. Otherwise, you probably won't enjoy it.


Reviewer's Score: 7/10 | Originally Posted: 06/09/03, Updated 06/30/03