The Transformers game for PS2 was released in May 2004. There was an animated series and comic book of the same name. All of these were made to promote the Transformers Armada toyline. As a PS2 game tie-in to an early 2000s toyline, The Transformers game really has no reason to be as good as it is. This game has a level of consideration that I donât think anybody would rightfully expect from what really amounts to an advert for toys. And I donât think anybody really talks about how Transformers on the PS2 is the only Transformers game which actually gets close to recreating the feeling of playing with toys..
The Transformers Toyline
Transformers is a toyline co-created by Takara of Japan and Hasbro of America in the early 1980s. Featuring robots who transform into vehicles and cassette players and guns and stuff. The conceit for the toyline was that the two tribes of Transformers have been warring on their own planet for millions of years, and then they came to Earth because just buy the damn toys we donât have to justify ourselves to you people. From the off, Transformers was Hasbroâs hottest property. Over the years, they went through several iterations and complications with both the ongoing story and with the actual toys themselves made Transformers popularity inconsistent to say the least.
The early 2000s was a hotbed for mining the 80s for nostalgia. Mattel successfully rebooted Masters of the Universe in the summer of 2002, backed by a cartoon and a comic book by Image Comics. Playmates also rebooted Turtles in 2003, again backed by an animated series, a comic book by Dreamwave and a PS2 game by Konami. Between these two, Hasbro released Transformers Armada at Christmas 2002. Backed with an animated series, a Dreamwave comic book and eventually a PS2 game by Melbourn House. Armada was intended to be a full reboot of the Transformers franchise. Bringing back legacy characters, resetting the continuity and taking the franchise back to its roots.
Weâve still got the story of the Autobots and Decepticons being at war for millennia. But Armada added a third tribe of Transformers, the Minicons. Minicons are tiny little robert friends who can connect up to the bigger Transformers, unlocking new powers and play features for the toys. The story in the comic book, the cartoon and the PS2 game is different in several ways, but the basic concept is the same. Itâs all about the Autobots and the Decepticons racing to find the Minicons to recruit them to their side in the war.
The Transformers PS2 Game
The game was developed by Melbourn House, previously known as Beam software. Their pedigree canât really be knocked for driving games but their history of 3D action games might give you pause.
Development started in January 2003, straight after the launch of the toys. From the off, Studio Head Andrew Carter said Melbourn Houseâs approach was to translate Transformers Armada into a good PS2 game. There was no intent to make this tie-in, but to make it something which stands alone. And apparently Hasbro enforced no canon restrictions and no storytelling requirements. So there was no need for the player to have seen or read anything else. You could come in blind, and save for a few obscure references to the 1986 Transformers animated film, the game gives you everything you need to tell its story.
Carter also explained that while the toyline and the cartoon was for kids, Melbourn Houseâs game was deliberately made for 20-30 year olds. What Carter called âthe PS2 marketâ. This is one of the first instances of taking a product which is historically for children and remaking it specifically for adults. A concept which increased in popularity through the 2000s and is now extremely commonplace today.
I wanted to talk about this game because I genuinely love Transformers. Iâve been collecting since I was about 17, and the Armada line is one of my highlights. This game is one of a small number of genuinely good Transformers games and itâs my personal favourite. Itâs the only game which nails the toyetic sensibility of the Transformers.
What do you mean “Toyetic”?
Once the game boots up, the first decision is which of your toys you want to play with. This isnât a permanent decision, you can pick and choose between these three Autobots pretty much on the fly. During development, Melbourne House had planned to have more playable characters. But in the end it was deemed too much work, so the three we have here are what we got. Optimus Prime is the Uncle Muscles of the group: slow-moving but hard-hitting. Red Alert is the balanced everyrobot and Hot Shot is Kid Speedy: heâs zippy but he canât take a lot of punishment. You might be looking at this guy and thinking âWait, isnât that little yellow car Bumblebee?â
And no. Hot Shot is not Bumblebee. This isnât an oversight.
Let’s talk about Bumblebee for a second
Thereâs a really specific reason why this isnât Bumblebee, when by all rights it should be. Toy companies of the 1980s and 90s rarely trademarked anything, because toylines usually lived and dies within a year, and the companies rarely (if ever) attempted to bring them back. As I previously mentioned, this specific brand of reboot nostalgia wasnât really invented until the early 2000s.
So Hasbro hadnât bothered to trademark a lot of their character names. When they went about rebooting Transformers for the Armada line, the trademark for a toy called Bumblebee had been taken. For a swing of all things. This is actually a pretty funny story, and Iâve done a longer video about that here. Suffice to say, they still wanted a little yellow guy, so they ended up calling him Hot Shot (they couldnât use Hot Rod either lol).
Back to the game
You play as one of these three Autobots as they chip about Earth, fighting Decepticons and looking for the hidden Minicons. Each level has a bunch of stuff to find, some baddies to shoot, a few scripted events and an end-of-level boss. It doesnât seem like thereâs a huge amount going on, but the game experience is deepened and feels so much more authentic because of that toyetic sense that I mentioned earlier.
Melbourne House captured a lot of detail to bring the toys into the game and by making the game third person, the action figures are front and centre.
The Transformers game gives us a good sense of a Transformerâs weight. They are big chonky robots and itâs fun to be reminded of that. These characters all move pretty sluggishly and have a really noticeable acceleration curve, especially when compared to characters from action games from the same era. But this keeps the focus on the fact youâre playing with a robot and the game controls really smoothly and responsively in spite of the heavy-feeling characters.
The platforming and controls are so good in fact, I often forget itâs a Transformers game and their one main gimmick is they can transform into cars at the press of a button. Aside from getting around the levels faster, the devs out ramps everywhere so you can take your robot off some sweet jumps. Iâll be honest, the car mode has very little utility. You canât shoot in car mode and most of the environments feel more suited to running and gunning. Itâs perhaps a bit half-baked with regards to the game design, but itâs also hella fun. This reinforces the notion that youâre playing with a toy and there doesnât really need to be any logic. As long as itâs fun.
Even the levels feel designed for play
Speaking of environments, the levels themselves are mostly based on real places. The Amazon, Antarctica, Alaska. But none of them are trying to be realistic. Theyâre romanticised interpretations of a real world place, in the same way that a duvet thrown over some sofa cushions might form the hills of the Amazon basin, or a sheepskin rug can play the snowy tundra of Alaska. Itâs clear that this world was designed around play instead of realism.
I think itâs funny that youâre given very few reminders that humans exist. Youâll be running about in jungles, crossing wooden bridges, going through tunnels and pyramids and then all of a sudden youâll see a tiny little house or a boat and be like âaww who are these tiny little people?â And then for a second the veil lifts and you remember these are normal humans. Youâre actually playing as a 40-foot tall ambulance. And yet despite that, every location you visit is scaled to fit a 40-foot tall robot.
Exploring these locations is what yields Transformersâs best and most unique play feature. The Minicons. Finding the Minicons isnât just a story conceit. In an absolute power move, Melbourn House used this play feature to inform the gameâs core loop.
In practical terms, the Minicons are tiny scaled-down Transformers that connect up to the larger, main robot characters. The term Hasbro used for this is PowerLinx with an X (this was the 2000s). As a play feature, PowerLinxing activated hidden abilities for each individual toy. Iâll show you what I mean with my Demolishor here. The missiles in his shoulders are locked in place and can only be activated by connecting a Minicon, which unlocks the firing mechanism. This was the same for most toys, having hidden weapons or other transformation gimmicks only available once a Minicon is connected.
In the cartoon and the comic books, the Minicons were the key to winning the war, as they revealed secret powers hidden deep within the Transformers. This is why the Autobots and Decepticons are so keen on finding them. The way Melbourn House translated that conceit into the game, was by making the Minicons utilitarian items like guns, rocket launchers, energy shields and so on. Locating the Minicons adds new powers to your Autobots by giving you new gear, rather than something more esoteric. When you find a new Minicon, they can be equipped right away or sent back to HQ for later. You are always free to dip out of a mission, change your âbot and experiment with your Minicon loadout and to play the game the way you see fit.
The gameâs action happens on the L and R buttons. When I spoke about 2000s games before, I made a point to mention that when these games were being made, a lot of the conventions that we take for granted now hadnât been fully established. Games from this era feel really experimental and creative to me. But the controls for Transformers might feel a little leftfield, playing today. Jump is on L1 and you fire your rifle or melĂ©e with R1. L2 and R2 will change depending on what you have assigned to them, but they range from shields, rocket launchers, different vision upgrades, all kinds of stuff but always extending the way you play the game.
Each Minicon has an energy rating and your Autobot has an upper limit, so you canât take all the best ones at the same time. This feels limiting but it stops you from stagnating with the same top-tier loadout and encourages regular, ongoing experimentation. Thereâs synergy between Minicons of the same colour which reward you with extra health. This becomes pretty much necessary on later levels and really deepens the conceit of the Autobot / Minicon synergy in a way even the toyline couldnât manage.
Bringing it together
The Transformers PS2 game comes into its own once youâve found a good assortment of Minicons. The real meat of the game is in revisiting each level after youâve cleared it, searching for Minicons and Datacons. Gliding through the air, searching for Minicons with your Minicon detector is such a chill vibe and itâs fun. But also it makes a lot of sense, as the game gets quite a bit harder so you will need to upgrade your armour and firepower to keep up.
Youâll probably end up playing as Prime in the later levels, as they are packed with harder enemies. Slow, chonky Prime is the smart option as he can take a lot of damage and he gives a lot in return. Still, judicious use of Minicons really is the biggest factor between victory and defeat. Shoutout to the Spaceship level, which you work your way through right-way up, but then after it crashes you work your way out through the same level, on its side! This was well before Uncharted. Thereâs no need for level design this good!
More than Meets the Eye
Transformers took 12 months to develop. By the time the game came out, the Armada toyline was actually wrapping up. Hasbro were preparing to launch their next big Transformers toy series, Energon. In fact in some territories, this game is referred to as Transformers Armada: Prelude to Energon. This was essentially a farewell to the Armada line and an introduction to the next phase of what Hasbro would eventually call the Unicron Trilogy. Once youâve defeated Megatron in his volcano hideout, the final reveal is a surprise showdown against the giant planet-eating robot, Unicron. Unicron is another example of Hasbro mining the 80s nostalgia – he appeared as the big bad in the 1986 animated film, but had never got a toy.
So why does Unicron turns up in this game? Because late in 2003, as a total surprise to everyone, Hasbro announced the first ever Unicron action figure. This thing blew a lot of minds in 2003, let me tell you. Unicron was in fact the last figure released in the Armada line and was almost certainly aimed at Man-children everywhere who had always wished for a Unicron toy. To promote this giant plastic hunk of nostalgia, the cartoon and comic book both did an enormous right-turn, with Unicron just suddenly appearing in both as the big bad. And so, it stands to reason that Hasbro probably stipulated that the giant planet-gobbling robo-Satan appear in the PS2 game, too. NGL, this final encounter does feel tacked-on, and is the only time I really get the âto sell toysâ vibe but also Iâm flying around space with a jetpack fighting a giant robot planet, so itâs rad as fuck.
That one thing aside, Transformers did extremely well on release. It got great reviews in the popular mags of the time. All these long years later it still holds up.
I remember picking this up at the time and being blown away by all the foliage and grass being rendered on the PS2. Playing it now, I notice that the gameâs native framerate is excellent, even with a ton of ragdolls and elements on screen.
I should say that Transformers has a tons of post-processing effects, which was the style at the time. Things like bloom, fake motion blur, that kind of thing. This game came out toward the end of the PS2 lifecycle, so Melbourn House were pushing the hardware to make it look as cinematic as possible. I dig this aesthetic in screenshots, but I disabled as much of that as I could in emulation. Partly because itâs distracting and partly because it generates weird graphical glitches. Presumably due to the little hacks and tricks Melbourn House were using to squeeze every drop of power out of the PS2! My settings are in the description if you want to recreate my setup, but itâs not game-breakingly bad with this all left on.
Final thoughts
On the subject of emulation. This game was released exclusively on the PS2 and has never been reissued on any platform since. The only way youâre playing this is a physical disc, either on original hardware or by ripping it and running it in an emulator. Krome Studios acquired Melbourn House in the mid-2000s so presumably they own the rights to the game, but I couldnât begin to understand the twisted web of licensing surrounding Transformers computer games now. Iâve been wrong before but itâs unlikely this will be for sale ever again, so downloading a ROM does zero damage to anyone.
Transformers is still Hasbroâs flagship franchise 20+ years later, I donât know if itâs anything to do with this old PS2 game. What I do know is that thereâs been a whole load of Transformers games since this. Most of them are pretty good. They play nicely, they feel like accomplished action games and they look lovely. But none of them recreate the toyetic sensation of playing with a transforming robot and traversing the realms of imagination quite like Transformers on the PS2. By being so closely connected to a real toyline and by delving into what makes transforming robot toys so cool, I think this game stands alone as the best Transformers game ever made.
Inside Transformers “Making of Transformers for Playstation 2”