BigTransformerTrev
4th December 2012, 01:23 PM
PLEASE NOTE, I HAVE TRIED TO REMAIN GENERAL IN THIS REVIEW AND TRIED NOT TO INCLUDE ANY SPOILERS OR ANY INFO THAT IS NOT ALREADY WIDELY AVAILABLE OR IN THE TRAILERS. HOWEVER IF YOU WISH TO KNOW NOTHING OF THIS GAME THEN PLEASE DO NOT READ ON.
I picked up the new Transformers Prime game for the Wii on Thursday in Bendigo at Big W for $48. The cheapest I could find it here in Swan Hill was for $69 which I was not willing to pay but for under $50 I thought "What the hell, it's been over a year since I bought a Wii game"
The Positives
Voice Acting: They seem to have all the voice actors from Transformers Prime on hand for this game which I thought was very good. It really lent to the feeling that I was taking part in the Transformers Prime universe. One of the (very few) letdowns from Fall of Cybertron was that they did not get Frank Welker to do Megatron (though the voice actor did quite a good job still I found) and Shockwave sounded more like the guy that talks over the beginning and ending of the 86 movie, rather than Shockwave himself (they got the original voice actor back for TF Animated, so I felt they could have got him back for FOC, though apparently he was approached for DOTM and turned it down). All these issues of not being able to relate to the characters in the Prime game were sidestepped nicely due in a large part to the voice acting so top marks!
Plot: The plot works very well fitting in to the TF Prime universe, although it is fairly thin when compared to FOC. The addition of Thunderwing was a large selling point for me wanting to get this game, as soon as I saw him in the trailers I was hooked! The usual, 'The kids are the Autobots weak point' was just as annoying as in the TV show so at least they remained faithful in that regard. Starscream and Dreadwing both seem to be in the Decepticon ranks at the same time which is a minor inconsistency. I don't want to go any further into detail here for those who have not played the game, but as previously stated, there is really not much to give away that has not already been seen in game trailers.
Enemies AI: While not brilliant, the enemies do at least take cover, try to flank you and will use the terrain to their advantage. Snipers will try to keep their distance, flyers will constantly streak to the other side of the battlefield while either bombing you or finding the high ground, and bruisers will try to get up close to smash you.
The Negatives
The Wii Controller: They have not done too bad a job with the controller considering it uses the Wii remote and nunchuck which are not the most user friendly in the gaming world. Each button serves a purpose. Where the controls let you down are in two main areas:
*The use of camera: You can move the camera to position it better in robot mode, though doing this during battle is almost impossible, and as soon as you release the side on the controller it immediately goes back to its original postion. This is annoying when you need to position a jump just right and you cant see where you are jumping to as the camera pans back around to the front. When fighting the Z button locks you onto an enemy so you can focus on them, and you are able to change the enemy you are focusing on by hitting Z again. This would work well if you only fought 2 enemies at a time but there are often 3 vehicons or insecticons and by focusing on one, you often cannot see what the other two are up to, which means a lot of getting punched in the back. In vehicle mode you cannot change the camera angle at all.
*Mellee combo's: Bashing enemies in this game does far more damage than shooting them, which is achieved by waving the Wii remote. The whole idea is that you hit the enemy once, and then when they are reeling you follow up with two more whacks to combo them off their feet. This often works well. The trouble is it often DOES NOT work well. During boss fights with Dreadwing and Megatron I found that suddenly my combos would not work and was getting my butt handed to me over and over again. I would stand in front of Meg's waving my Wii controller like a maniac with absolutely no effect other than standing in front of him motionless, waiting for the next strike. When shooting does minimal damage, they should have ensured that the combo system was faultless.
The Difficulty: There are no difficulty settings in the game and overall it is too easy. The only times I have died is if I have fallen off cliffs (and even then they just put you back before the jump and dock you a small amount of energon) or if I have had problems with the Wii remote during boss battles. Even if you do die, they let you pick up where you left off with some extra energy, though you do have the option to turn down this option.
Replay: Besides finding the odd TF relic (there are 1 to 4 scattered around different levels) there is really no compunction to have another go at a level you have already clocked.
Graphics: They are faithful to the cartoon, but when we have had years of PC, PS3 & Xbox360 graphics, these look and feel definetly last generation. In fact I have even seen Wii games with sharper graphics. But then some people also say that the cartoon is a bit blocky and bland so once again, maybe they are just being faithful.
Boss fights: I don't want to go into too much detail for fear of spoilers, but lets just say that most bosses have 3 to 4 different moves and once you discover that pattern it's all over.
Enemy Strength: The average Insecticon in this game does down with no more difficulty that your average Vehicon, and their strength does not seem to increase as you progress through the game.
Gameplay Variety: You will do pretty much the same thing every level. Jump, punch, shoot and occasionally drive. It would have been nice for them to make more use of the vehicle modes but at least they occasionally serve some purpose. No grappling hooks or cassette warriors here. Also no new guns to pick up, no items to use and nothing to upgrade :( You do get a Grimlock-style rage meter, which when full lets you unleash a melee weapon and increase your firepower for a short period of time.
Overall, it's not a bad game, not a bad game at all. But then it's not a great game, not a great game at all. I recommend this game if a: you love the TF Prime cartoon, b: like me you like to have copies of all the Transformers games they release (I picked up a PS3 copy of ROTF at Dick Smith brand new for $10 a few years ago) and c: you can find it cheap. If you are looking for something along the lines of FOC or even WFC, then definetly look elsewhere. I have yet to play the multiplayer on the game, so if someone else wants to review that I would be intrested to read it :)
I picked up the new Transformers Prime game for the Wii on Thursday in Bendigo at Big W for $48. The cheapest I could find it here in Swan Hill was for $69 which I was not willing to pay but for under $50 I thought "What the hell, it's been over a year since I bought a Wii game"
The Positives
Voice Acting: They seem to have all the voice actors from Transformers Prime on hand for this game which I thought was very good. It really lent to the feeling that I was taking part in the Transformers Prime universe. One of the (very few) letdowns from Fall of Cybertron was that they did not get Frank Welker to do Megatron (though the voice actor did quite a good job still I found) and Shockwave sounded more like the guy that talks over the beginning and ending of the 86 movie, rather than Shockwave himself (they got the original voice actor back for TF Animated, so I felt they could have got him back for FOC, though apparently he was approached for DOTM and turned it down). All these issues of not being able to relate to the characters in the Prime game were sidestepped nicely due in a large part to the voice acting so top marks!
Plot: The plot works very well fitting in to the TF Prime universe, although it is fairly thin when compared to FOC. The addition of Thunderwing was a large selling point for me wanting to get this game, as soon as I saw him in the trailers I was hooked! The usual, 'The kids are the Autobots weak point' was just as annoying as in the TV show so at least they remained faithful in that regard. Starscream and Dreadwing both seem to be in the Decepticon ranks at the same time which is a minor inconsistency. I don't want to go any further into detail here for those who have not played the game, but as previously stated, there is really not much to give away that has not already been seen in game trailers.
Enemies AI: While not brilliant, the enemies do at least take cover, try to flank you and will use the terrain to their advantage. Snipers will try to keep their distance, flyers will constantly streak to the other side of the battlefield while either bombing you or finding the high ground, and bruisers will try to get up close to smash you.
The Negatives
The Wii Controller: They have not done too bad a job with the controller considering it uses the Wii remote and nunchuck which are not the most user friendly in the gaming world. Each button serves a purpose. Where the controls let you down are in two main areas:
*The use of camera: You can move the camera to position it better in robot mode, though doing this during battle is almost impossible, and as soon as you release the side on the controller it immediately goes back to its original postion. This is annoying when you need to position a jump just right and you cant see where you are jumping to as the camera pans back around to the front. When fighting the Z button locks you onto an enemy so you can focus on them, and you are able to change the enemy you are focusing on by hitting Z again. This would work well if you only fought 2 enemies at a time but there are often 3 vehicons or insecticons and by focusing on one, you often cannot see what the other two are up to, which means a lot of getting punched in the back. In vehicle mode you cannot change the camera angle at all.
*Mellee combo's: Bashing enemies in this game does far more damage than shooting them, which is achieved by waving the Wii remote. The whole idea is that you hit the enemy once, and then when they are reeling you follow up with two more whacks to combo them off their feet. This often works well. The trouble is it often DOES NOT work well. During boss fights with Dreadwing and Megatron I found that suddenly my combos would not work and was getting my butt handed to me over and over again. I would stand in front of Meg's waving my Wii controller like a maniac with absolutely no effect other than standing in front of him motionless, waiting for the next strike. When shooting does minimal damage, they should have ensured that the combo system was faultless.
The Difficulty: There are no difficulty settings in the game and overall it is too easy. The only times I have died is if I have fallen off cliffs (and even then they just put you back before the jump and dock you a small amount of energon) or if I have had problems with the Wii remote during boss battles. Even if you do die, they let you pick up where you left off with some extra energy, though you do have the option to turn down this option.
Replay: Besides finding the odd TF relic (there are 1 to 4 scattered around different levels) there is really no compunction to have another go at a level you have already clocked.
Graphics: They are faithful to the cartoon, but when we have had years of PC, PS3 & Xbox360 graphics, these look and feel definetly last generation. In fact I have even seen Wii games with sharper graphics. But then some people also say that the cartoon is a bit blocky and bland so once again, maybe they are just being faithful.
Boss fights: I don't want to go into too much detail for fear of spoilers, but lets just say that most bosses have 3 to 4 different moves and once you discover that pattern it's all over.
Enemy Strength: The average Insecticon in this game does down with no more difficulty that your average Vehicon, and their strength does not seem to increase as you progress through the game.
Gameplay Variety: You will do pretty much the same thing every level. Jump, punch, shoot and occasionally drive. It would have been nice for them to make more use of the vehicle modes but at least they occasionally serve some purpose. No grappling hooks or cassette warriors here. Also no new guns to pick up, no items to use and nothing to upgrade :( You do get a Grimlock-style rage meter, which when full lets you unleash a melee weapon and increase your firepower for a short period of time.
Overall, it's not a bad game, not a bad game at all. But then it's not a great game, not a great game at all. I recommend this game if a: you love the TF Prime cartoon, b: like me you like to have copies of all the Transformers games they release (I picked up a PS3 copy of ROTF at Dick Smith brand new for $10 a few years ago) and c: you can find it cheap. If you are looking for something along the lines of FOC or even WFC, then definetly look elsewhere. I have yet to play the multiplayer on the game, so if someone else wants to review that I would be intrested to read it :)