The Energon Pub

There's a long history of Transformers video games, and with the upcoming release of Transformers: Devastation from Activision and development team Platinum Games, we wanted to take a look back at some of the games you should play if you're wanting a Transformers fix on your console right now. The rankings here are mostly just my own opinion, of course, but there is some extra input from other members of the staff here as well. If your favorite didn't make the list, let us know by replying to this topic and chatting with your fellow Seibertronians!

Without further adieu, let's get to the list.



Some folks may be surprised to see a movie tie-in title on this list at all. With the first two movie tie-in games for 2007's Transformers and 2009's Revenge of the Fallen being not terrible, but also not great, it made sense that not a lot of fans gave this game much of a look. While it was certainly a bit of a let down after War for Cybertron, this effort from High Moon Studios still retained a lot of the fun gameplay elements found in WFC.

Transformation remained important in this game, as characters' vehicle modes were given special "Stealth Force" modes to tie in with the weaponized designs in the movie, as well as with the almost M.A.S.K. like toy sub-line of the same name.



The story presented in the game is a bit of a departure from standard movie game re-telling fare. Rather than give you a plot you already know, this serves as a very serviceable official prologue to the events of the movie. In fact, some elements of the movie itself manage to come off making more sense after playing the game.

While this one isn't going to garner a lot of replay, it's worth taking a look at if you're a fan of the movies. It's certainly the game on this list that likely least deserves inclusion, but hey, that's why it's number five!



Another easy to overlook media tie in comes in at number 4. Transformers: Prime has a pretty vast extended universe, and this game only adds more layers to it. Featuring a story that runs (supposedly) concurrent to the events of Season 2 of the show, the game has Team Prime battling Decepticons across the globe, trying to stop the ever-present menace of Dark Energon.

The gameplay itself isn't on any elite level, but it's a pretty fun romp with some clever combat mechanisms hiding just under the surface. The game isn't a graphical powerhouse, but the Wii U version offers up some delightful visuals regardless and quite honestly, the backgrounds in this game are often more interesting and alive than many of those found in the TV show itself.

To be honest, this one really adds one killer thing to the Prime universe: Thunderwing.



Just as with television leaving out the great characters and events in the Prime comics, it also leaves out any mention of this guy, and that's a real shame. Prime fans everywhere should give this one a run through, though with a pretty short story mode and only limited multi-player, just don't expect it to last long.



2010's War for Cybertron was High Moon Studios' first effort with the Transformers brand license, and what a debut it was! Kicking off the new "Aligned Continuity" with a story set at the beginning of the Autobot vs. Decepticon war was this robust cover shooter. Incredible visuals, great voice acting, and a rich story awaited players everywhere.

Possibly the most notable contribution the game gave to the brand was a re-kindling of credibility for Transformers, as a franchise/brand, to produce an environment for great gaming experiences. The sprawling landscapes of Cybertron really come to life in the game, and for the first time I felt some real scope in regards to just how darn big this planet would have to be. The tone hits perfectly, lending great immersion into the games world.



It's hard to come up with much negative to say about this one, but since that feels necessary to only place it third on our list, I will say that there are times the difficulty felt a bit high. That's not a bad thing necessarily, it just felt like there were a few too many ambushes by a few too many enemies once in a while. The sequel took a few steps to correct this, but not entirely.

That said, this is one that not only Transformers fans, but most gamers, should give a go at if it has not been experienced.



It'd have to take a pretty special game to unseat one of High Moon's more recent two headlining efforts on this list, and there is one game that not only myself, but much of the staff, remember quite fondly. 2004's simply named Transformers is based in the Armada franchise, though it doesn't canonically tie in with either the TV show or comic series. From publisher Atari and developers Melbourne House, this third person shooter let gamers control their favorite Armada Autobots in a quest to collect Mini-cons and stop the Decepticons.

This game was hard, didn't have a lot of playable characters, and while the graphics were phenomenal for the time, they certainly look dated today. It was, however, extremely fun, and gave fans some moments where our toys suddenly seemed even more out of scale than they already were.



There's another very important reason to praise this game. At the time, Transformers videogames were considered to be among the very worst examples of franchise tie-in games ever. The positive reception and sales of this game made it possible for more to follow later on, and that's probably the biggest accomplishment of the game. Too bad the Cybertron inspired sequel got canceled.



This one's pretty much automatic.

The sequel to the already great War for Cybertron was followed up two years later by another stellar effort from High Moon Studios with 2012's Fall of Cybertron. Picking up some time after the events of the first game, this one follows the end of the war all the way to the departure of the Autobots on the Ark.

With improved graphics, stellar gameplay, and a multiplayer mode that remains active to this day, Fall of Cybertron is hands down the best Transformers videogame ever created, and should be on any fans "must-play" list. I can watch the E3 trailer from before this games' release and still get hyped to this day.



Combine into Bruticus, stomp around as Grimlock, or scorch the earth with Metroplex - this game has it all. If you're reading this article and you haven't played this game, do yourself a favor and go do so. Right freaking now.


We hope you enjoyed this look back. Don't forget that Activision's Transformers: Devastation comes out soon on October 6th for virtually every platform on the planet, and you can pre-order your copy today. Where will that game fit in with the other Transformers gaming efforts of the past? We'll know very soon, and it certainly looks quite promising!

Glad you didn't ignore the PS2 game there, would love to see that updated for the PS4 or 3.

Awe...no honorable mention for the Animated DS game? That was a really fun one

Wow, I still can't believe that people leave Tatakai out in the cold, with bosses like predaking, trypticon, skylinx, abominous, computron, galvatron & Megatron, optimus & rodimus, how could it not be a favorite. It may be a button masher, but its got an awesome soundtrack, great graphics for its time and about 100 Transformers in it, with a good roster of both playable autobots and deceptions.
[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oJSW8yEwldo[/youtube]

anybody ever play the beast wars game? talk about horrendous.

Well, at least there was no mention of any of those horrible cell phone games lol

believe it or not the rise of the dark spark game is fantastic. (I'm about halfway through it) Same mechanics as FOC and most of the game so far takes place on Cybertron! I really am enjoying it.

LE0KING wrote:believe it or not the rise of the dark spark game is fantastic. (I'm about halfway through it) Same mechanics as FOC and most of the game so far takes place on Cybertron! I really am enjoying it.

I like ROTDS, but the story contradicts that of AOE. It's like they were just using the AOE designs to ride off the hype of it, while it took place in a completely different universe.

i thought ROTF game was OK

SlyTF1 wrote:

LE0KING wrote:believe it or not the rise of the dark spark game is fantastic. (I'm about halfway through it) Same mechanics as FOC and most of the game so far takes place on Cybertron! I really am enjoying it.

I like ROTDS, but the story contradicts that of AOE. It's like they were just using the AOE designs to ride off the hype of it, while it took place in a completely different universe.

Fair enough, but I like the game universe better anyway so it's not a problem for me.

Fall of Cybertron is a magnificent game and rightfully #1.

really DOTM made the list? Thats game was terrible, what about the first movie ds game that was one of the best TF games ever made. Im guessing you either dont own a DS or this is a console only list. Also i still think FoC was complete crap compared to WFC, was a total let down in my book.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Fall of Cybertron is a magnificent game and rightfully #1.

So true!

Top 5 nerd moments in Fall of Cybertron:
Switching alt modes during combat. (I know. No brainer.)
Laying waste as Bruticus.
Optimus Prime's air strikes.
Grimlock in beast mode.
Smashing a certain Decepticon leader as Metroplex. And smashing him some more.

Alpha Dominus wrote:Top 5 nerd moments in Fall of Cybertron:
Switching alt modes during combat. (I know. No brainer.)
Laying waste as Bruticus.
Optimus Prime's air strikes.
Grimlock in beast mode.
Smashing a certain Decepticon leader as Metroplex. And smashing him some more.

I think you should specify 5 to "transform Hulk-style as Grimlock" and make it #1 and you're good

Optimall wrote:

Fixed, and thanks.
But no, this game probably only deserves an honorable mention just for how hilariously bad it is. It had it's charm and a neat selection of playable characters and bosses, but falls so tremendously short on so many levels to be enjoyable beyond it's weird continuity, writing, and voice acting all being incredibly cheesy. The gameplay is clunky, the enemies are relentless, the levels are way too long and boring to look at, character balance is almost non-existent, and for every single playable character featured there are at least a dozen more who get lumped with mook duty.

As for every other title on this list... Meh. I've played all except DotM(movie franchise games are an absolute no go for me) and to be frank while I can't say they're bad, the general feeling I have for all of them is that they just don't hit enough marks on their own to be great games. I suppose I don't mind seeing FoC at number one, since that's the one title I revisit the most, but I'm not impressed with how few characters you get to play as in the main campaign.

Ultra Markus wrote:i thought ROTF game was OK

It had the best multiplayer I've ever played in my life. I played it for months. Any other multiplayer game, I play about 2 matches, tops.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Alpha Dominus wrote:Top 5 nerd moments in Fall of Cybertron:
Switching alt modes during combat. (I know. No brainer.)
Laying waste as Bruticus.
Optimus Prime's air strikes.
Grimlock in beast mode.
Smashing a certain Decepticon leader as Metroplex. And smashing him some more.

I think you should specify 5 to "transform Hulk-style as Grimlock" and make it #1 and you're good

True.True.

Shadowstream wrote:

Optimall wrote:

Fixed, and thanks.
But no, this game probably only deserves an honorable mention just for how hilariously bad it is. It had it's charm and a neat selection of playable characters and bosses, but falls so tremendously short on so many levels to be enjoyable beyond it's weird continuity, writing, and voice acting all being incredibly cheesy. The gameplay is clunky, the enemies are relentless, the levels are way too long and boring to look at, character balance is almost non-existent, and for every single playable character featured there are at least a dozen more who get lumped with mook duty.

Ironically, however, Tatakai is probably the game that Devastation has the most in common with. From all the gameplay trailers, Devastation looks like a modernized retake of this old PS2 game...hopefully with a more polished combat system.

Alpha Dominus wrote:Top 5 nerd moments in Fall of Cybertron:
Switching alt modes during combat. (I know. No brainer.)
Laying waste as Bruticus.
Optimus Prime's air strikes.
Grimlock in beast mode.
Smashing a certain Decepticon leader as Metroplex. And smashing him some more.

You missed one thing.
Hearing "Metroplex heeds the call of the Last Prime" in the trailer is what convinced me to get this game.


Also, is WFC worth it? I've been thinking about getting it based on the larger selection of characters in escalation mode, because I would be able to accomplish one of my goals in life, which is to play as my favorite transformer, Air Raid, in a game.

Transformers (Armada) was a pretty amazing game. Not only was it a lot of fun to play with some actual care in the game design, but the graphics were phenomenal for the PS2, easily some of the best graphics the console ever had. Detail, lighting, animation, it was all top notch.

Rise of the Dark Spark is only a half-good game. The Cybertron portion is as good as any of the previous installments. The AoE half is horrendous! The graphics aren't as good, the environments are bland and obviously rushed with unfinished looking non-descript buildings and constant tunnels. It doesn't even try to pretend there's a movie it's supposed to be tied to since the makers obviously never saw it. Just terrible.

Emerje

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron no doubt is number one. In my opinion, it's the best Transformers game of all time.

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote: "Metroplex heeds the call of the Last Prime"

Most Badass quote ever

RoTF had an awesome control scheme I thought, it had easily the most seamless transformation controls. Being able to change from vehicle into a ground pound in robot mode and immediately turn back into vehicle mode was nice. Those triggers being used as the transformation was really smart. So I kinda wish it was 5

Dotm was lack-luster to me. Short levels. Only played as Optimus for a boss fight. One whole level as Laserbeak. Soundwave's mission is mostly driving from what I do remember. 7 levels total. Idk.. I just found it forgettable. Not the developers fault though, it got rushed out to coincide with the movie also likely that a lot of work was focused on FoC.

FoC is one of my favorite games of all time. It's a huge nostalgia-fest and it plays so well.

RotDS is awful. Good mechanics but it's a dull design. Enter room, fight enemies à la horde mode in room, repeat. I realize that's a standard formula in games but it's super obvious in RotDS. Also I can't forgive the fact that I was playing the beginning of Bumblebee's level, died from missing a jump, began me at the middle of Optimus's level..... what kind of checkpoint system is that? I was also not the only person to have that problem since the flawed checkpoints was a major complaint of the game.

I own the Armada game for PS2. It got so hard that I just gave up. I don't have the patience for hard games anymore. As for the DOTM one, I'll have to find it for dirt cheap. I've yet to have any movie games because of all the bad scores for the high prices. I own and got through the DS version of TF Prime. The gameplay is nothing to write home about, but it was fun nonetheless.

However, I personally would have put WFC at #1 and FOC at #2. For me, WFC is the superior game simply because it have 2 truly epic boss fights. against Omega Supreme and against Trypticon. Truly memorable. In FOC, even if we do play as Bruticus, the gameplay was a bit underwhelming. The fight against Bruticus didnt feel epic at all. Also, Metroplex was a missed opportunity because he only became a background event. I would really like an epic boss fight against him. At least, I could rampage as Grimlock so that was awesome.

Now, will TF Devastation deliver? We'll find out in a month.

While we're at it, enjoy a video review of the firsts TF games ever: