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Ripten Review: Transformers: War for Cybertron

Gavin Bard — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:55:43 +0000

I loaded Transformers: War for Cybertron up with the intent to do my review from the perspective of a jaded 20-something who has watched various elements of his precious childhood dashed on the rocks like Macaulay Culkin in the Good Son and now no longer trusts anything based on intellectual property from those formative years where I was babysat by the television.

So my original intention was to find the exact moment in this game that it became better than the Michael Bay directed cinematic abortion and leave the review at that. I’ve just become so wary of adaptations of adaptations of any precious nostalgic memory that, even with fairly decent Transformers games in the past, I still did not expect much from War of Cybertron based on principal and Megan Fox alone. So I figured that it would take a while to get to a point where I could fully admit that this game surpassed my low expectations and became a better representation of the series than those god awful explosion-porn movies.

Ten seconds after starting the game, I realized I may need to think of a different angle. Even before the title screens faded it was already better than anything Michael Bay had ever done. Just the intro video alone was what the movies should have been- no annoying humans, no stupid jokes, just robots teaching us lessons about life and ourselves while they fight to the death while Stan Bush tells us that we have both the touch AND the power.

Okay, so the part about Stan Bush might have just been me playing the song on loop for the duration of the game, but the point stands that this brought forth nostalgia in a way that I can’t quite remember video games doing before. Ghostbusters got close, but in the end it just didn’t feel like it had much substance. It was fantastic solely from a nostalgia standpoint, but eventually you stopped enjoying the gameplay and just wanted there to be a Ghostbusters 3. Transformers: War for Cybertron does not suffer from this problem. Instead, it breaks into your house, drugs you, puts you in footie pajamas, and makes you eat a big bowl of Nintendo Cereal System in front of your television while you play it.

This is because High Moon Studios seemed to actually get what other entertainment adaptations of well supported franchise never seemed to quite grasp. The reason these companies, whether it’s a gaming company or a movie company, end up creating absolute garbage when they translate one media into another is because their constant view that the die hard community that surrounds the product is not as large or marketable as the broad community who watches movies. This is why seemingly important plotlines and characters, no matter how loved or important, get axed. They just didn’t appeal to the general public. Most companies would rather alienate the smaller but passionate group of fans to make things more marketable to the larger base. This generally makes sure the final product doesn’t look anything like GI Joe or Dead Pool or whatever has been pulled out of the ground and crushed under the heels of mediocrity.

They all seem to do this even though evidence constantly proves you don’t have to. Those movies that ignore the core base the hardest always end up being the worst. By trying to appeal to the large demographic, they only end up making a movie that nobody wants to see, or a video game that nobody wants to play, or a pornography series that strays too far from it’s BDSM roots and throws cuddling in there. High Moon Studios realized the secret- instead of making it unappealing to the people who want a strict adaptation, just cater to them while making sure the substance speaks to the rest of the crowd. This is how the Iron Man movies turned out how they did. All the best examples of remakes or adaptations of one property to a different medium prove that, and Transformers: War of Cybertron is no different.

Sure, you’ll be the burger patty in between two grilled cheese sandwiches of nostalgia the minute your brain can actually process the amount of detail paid to our beloved disguised robots through the fantastic visuals, or maybe it will take until you get to envelop your ears in the warm and familiar uterus that is the great voice acting (Peter Cullen as Optimus and the one millionth game Stephen Blum has appeared in jump to mind) but in the end you’ll really be playing because of how well the game stands on its own.

Transformers: War of Cybertron isn’t just a great Transformers game, it’s one of the best third person action games in a while. High Moon didn’t let themselves get complacent and decide to use their incredible attention to Transformers detail, they built a game you can play all the way through without ever really wanting to put it down. It’s the “good book you can’t stop reading” of video games. Sorry, I really couldn’t come up with a better analogy than that.

The story keeps you engrossed, and jumping from the Decepticons story line, which is filled with more vitriol and evil than the 2012 Republican National Convention, to the wide-eyed hopefulness of the Autobots campaign actually ends up creating a fantastic little narrative device that makes the story stand out even more. The best part is that you actually enjoy getting from one chapter to another, because the gameplay is so top notch.

Instead of attempting to wedge in a third person cover mechanic, High Moon decided to make things more more strategic in a different way. The well-done transforming mechanic gives you a few different ways to tackle any battle, and taking your chosen Transformers powers to give you an advantage can be a huge help- especially if you tackle the game on it’s hardest setting. This is a game that is unabashedly difficult, almost as much of a throw back to the 80s than it’s source material. It does tend to prop that high challenge up with frustratingly cheap environmental fatalities and bosses that might pack a bit too much power for your sometimes fragile health bar. Thankfully, the ability to transform from one form to another easily can help you get through these difficult parts by giving you the options to try a different type of attack.

Even better is that the levels actually seem designed to both of your forms, and designed intelligently. You’ll find yourself having to transform at important times in order to blast through a fortified position or flank an opponent in your jet form and rain down some energon death rain. I initially could have done with less linearity, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the action is so frantic and entertaining that opening the worlds up a bit might have actually harmed things. This is just a well paced game through and through.

Even more surprising than how well the story mode, which can be played both single and co-op, turned out is that the multiplayer is so deep and well done. Games like this, you almost always assume that the multiplayer will just be tacked on, because in this day and age everything needs a multiplayer. I’m looking at you Mavis Beacon, I want leaderboards. Instead, High Moon transmorphified some familiar influences into a deep online component. You’ll see everything from little bits of Tribes to a taste of Star Wars: Battlefront to just a hint of Team Fortress 2- a Game Pie, if you will. Except instead of duck or venison, Julia Child stuffed a whole heaping pan of awesome into it then put the pie crust on and cooked it at 400 degrees until ready to serve.

You play as a customizable Transformer that falls into one of four classes. Leaders, scouts, scientists, and soldiers. Each class, obviously, gives you different weapons, different abilities, and different transformations. Making your own Autobots and Decepticons is way entertaining, and it would be easy to complain about a lack of customization options because it would be impossible to actually give me enough options when it comes to building an enormous ass-kicking robot. You can be aided through Transformers: War for Cybertron’s usual suspects of gametypes by ranking up and gaining more experience in your class. These different 10-player playlists are where you really see what an alloy of the best things from other games War for Cybertron is. The Power Struggle and Code of Power types will make Unreal Tournament fans feel right at home, while the Countdown to Extinction mode will make you nuke-happy players, er, happy. As is the norm in recent history, there are some connectivity issues persistent, but it is to be assumed they will be worked out.

The single and multiplayer modes are both incredibly chaotic, and incredibly entertaining, representations of a hugely important thing from us ancient gamers’ childhoods, and High Moon should be given a ticker-tape parade for it. They’ve balanced nostalgia with substance and given us the deep and engrossing Transformers game we’ve wanted from the start, and they did it with a clear love of the product and a desire to give us the most excitement for our money.

See Michael Bay, you can have your cake and blow it the fuck up too.

Transformers: War for Cybertron was developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, with different ports to the Wii and Nintendo DS. It was released June 22nd, 2010 in North America with a retail price of $59.99 on the consoles and $39.99 on PC. This review was made using the Xbox 360 version for the single-player and both the Xbox 360 version and PC version for multiplayer. The single-player mode was played to completion both because it was super mega awesome in every possible way and for the review, while 10+ hours were invested into the multiplayer across both platforms.

Rose-Tinted Nostalgia: The Top Five Franchises That Nintendo Forgot

Cavin Smith — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:18:14 +0000

“No time machine? Not my problem!”

I admit it, I’m a hypocrite. I have no problem busting Nintendo’s chops on forums across the internet for banking on nostalgia these days, but I’ve got a secret rose-tinted past of my own. Like most of you, I grew up on Nintendo — watched the cartoons, ate the cereal, wore the underoos. But I feel like they’ve left a few of my favorite franchises collecting dust while Mario and Zelda get all the glory. Hit the jump for the top 5 series that I think time (and Nintendo) forgot and how they should be resurrected.

5. Pilotwings

Oh yes, Pilotwings. The flight sim that actually made flight sims fun. I’m also pretty sure it paved the way for hundreds of “fly through the rings” challenges and mind-numbing checkpoint races to come, but it was great stuff back in 1990!

It’s also one of the games that introduced us to the SNES’ ubiquitous Mode 7 technique which allowed flat surfaces to be stretched, scaled, and so on to produce a mock-3D effect. Its only sequel, Pilotwings 64, likewise ushered in a new era as real 3D entered the fray. Using the added dimension to allow players full-freedom flight, it was arguably an even more satisfying experience than its fellow pioneers.

But where did Pilotwings go? 64 really dates the series with its atrocious graphics and Nester cameo (Nintendo Power’s mascot du jour back in the late 80s/early 90s). Its absence is excusable on the GameCube, which had no significantly fresh experience to offer (though Factor 5 was rumored to be making one for awhile), but what about the Wii?

Pilotwings’ penchant for ushering in new technology would’ve made it a perfect fit for showing off motion controls. Even as a Sports-style collection of flight mini-games (which it always kind of has been), it would’ve been fantastic!

Konami and Hudson even tried to fill in the gap with Wing Island, but spectacularly failed at capturing the same magic.

Bringing It Back: It might be too late for this one. Pilotwings has always appeared at the beginning of a console’s life cycle, and we’re a full year past that point with no new iteration in sight. It could still come at some point, but I don’t think it would have quite the same impact. That either game in the series has yet to hit Virtual Console yet is a bit surprising, but it’ll likely happen sooner or later, so it looks like you’ll have to go there for your flight sim fix.

4. Super Mario RPG

I was a giddy little 12-year-old when this came out. It was probably my most anticipated game ever up until that point except for, oddly enough, Earthbound (I was sadly too young to truly appreciate “Mother” back then, but it managed to draw me in anyway).

I remember the day, itself. My buddy got it the same day as I did and told me not to start playing until he got home so that we’d be roughly at the same point. I was weak, I couldn’t do it. I started it up without him. Sure, he got pissed, but the anger soon abated as we delved deeper into the game’s wonderful world.

In retrospect, this probably seemed like a horrible idea at the time. How could you take a platforming series with a rudimentary story and spin it into a full-fledged role-playing epic? Even attempting would normally seem like a waste of time and effort, but Squaresoft was up to the task. To date, few RPG adaptations have even come close to touching the genius of Legend of the Seven Stars.

But, even as the core Mario characters endure, few of the new introductions were even seen again. What about Mallow, Booster, Frogfucious, the Axem Rangers, Smithy, and all the other unique creations? One of Mario’s allies, the possessed doll Geno, did make a small cameo in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but that’s about it. It’s a shame that some of the less creative characters to come out of the Mario pantheon (Bowser Jr., Piantas, etc.) continue to pop up, while they’ve fallen by the wayside. Wouldn’t you like to see them again?

And what of all the memorable sequences in the game? Climbing Booster’s tower, fighting Chef Torte’s wedding cake, ascending into Nimbus land, finding all those hidden blocks, or tackling Culex, the hidden Final Fantasy-esque boss even stronger than main villain Smithy?

Bringing It Back: It could happen now that Square-Enix is back in bed with Nintendo. Since they have the rights to certain aspects of the game (like the character Geno), there’s nothing technically stopping a sequel from being made. Well, except that Nintendo’s moved on.

During the infamous split, Intelligent Systems took over RPG duties, creating the Paper Mario series. And then came Mario & Luigi for portables. Though highly creative in its own right, Intelligent Systems’ take on the plumber no doubt took cues from Legend of the Seven Stars from hit timing (to cause more damage or dodge an attack) to utilizing a cast of quirky characters and a plot prone to both the drama and wackiness not typically found in a traditional Mario game.

Considering as much, some would probably say that Super Mario RPG has never really left us. Either way, a sequel feels like it’d work best on the DS for me. The game has never been updated or re-released, so even a version of the original would be more than welcome.

3. Wrecking Crew

Wrecking Crew was one of Nintendo’s earliest NES games, born in a time when Mario still wasn’t sure what he wanted to be when he grew up: chocolatier? golfer? pinball master? Nah. But before he settled on “Princess Peach’s savior and part-time plumber” (kind of like those guys on Ghost Hunters, except with more spooks and less wailing females), he tried “demolition man” on for size.

The object of this puzzler was to destroy all the walls and doors on any given level whilst avoiding scary, anthropomorphic tools and a devious evil twin named Spike. It was really quite a good formula for the time, a bit like Lode Runner.

Just as that game did, Wrecking Crew also featured a built-in level editor. Sadly, the Famicom Data Recorder was required to save creations, and considering that it was never released in the US, the options were disabled over here.

Various elements of Wrecking Crew have made cameos in other games over the years (one of 9-volt’s levels in Wario Ware: Twisted!, for instance), and a remake eventually popped up in 1998, appropriately titled Wrecking Crew ’98, but the gameplay was remarkably changed.

Bringing It Back: Sure, why not? The core mechanics of the game work just as well today as they did over twenty years ago. Puzzle games are timeless, and with a bit of tweaking, there’s no reason why a true sequel couldn’t be produced. It would work well on either the DS (tapping walls to destroy them) or on the Wii (use the remote like a hammer), perhaps as a Wii Ware download instead of a retail release.

Currently, Wrecking Crew is available on Virtual Console, where you can actually save any levels created in the editor. Masahiro Sakurai certainly hasn’t forgotten about it, with the Golden Hammer appearing as a weapon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

2. The Adventures of Lolo

Speaking of Sakurai, he’s probably one of the only Nintendo alum willing to dig deep enough into the company’s past to dredge up the most obscure bits of nostalgia. Just take a look at the trophy list in any Smash Bros. game, it’s a minefield of fanboy memories!

Sakurai’s perhaps most famous for designing Kirby at the age of 19, though, when he was still an underling at HAL Laboratory. His creation would go on to overshadow my #2, The Adventures of Lolo, turning its titular hero into a villain in Kirby’s Dream Land.

But why has the little blue guy not been able to return for his own game since? Like Wrecking Crew, it was a wonderfully devious puzzler. It was also freaky as hell. Modern horror games have nothing on Lolo’s Medusa Heads or fire-spitting Gols. It was like sitting on pins and needles every time you’d have to pass through the gaze of Medusa, it’s eyes flicking open looking for prey. If you weren’t behind some sort of solid cover, it meant instant death.

With its devious enemies and clever block-pushing game mechanics, Lolo remains both compelling and incredibly difficult even today.

Bringing it Back: Please! Someone! The original is available on Virtual Console, and there are two sequels to work your way through, but an update would go great on the DS. As a bite-sized puzzler, it’s perfect for play on-the-go.

Just as Nintendo did with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, using the stylus to creatively control different objects on screen could lend enough innovation to the series to make it feel fresh and new, even to long-time fans.

Come on Hal Labs!

1. StarTropics

Finally, we get to number one! I remember this being a pretty big release back in the day, with a serialized Howard and Nester comic in Nintendo Power and everything. Its rough similarities to Zelda didn’t hurt, either, but StarTropics was still unique enough to stand on its own.

You played as Mike Jones (read: not the rapper), a yo-yo toting youth out to save his archaeologist uncle, Dr. J, from malevolent aliens led by the evil Zoda. Sounds wacky, but the combination worked quite well. Marrying island mysticism with good old sci-fi standbys resulted in a winner.

Immersion was helped along by a letter from Dr. J being included with the game, which asked Mike (i.e. the player) to come and help him. At one point, you’d have to submerge part of the letter in water to reveal a code used to proceed.

Dungeons were great fun, as well. They would consist of all kinds of different traps an enemies with hidden areas and weapons to find. A key component was jumping around on floating tiles in order to figure out which ones would reveal a switch or open a door. Of course, you’d have to be careful, because some were booby-trapped or would sink into the water. Not to mention that there were monsters to be avoided in the process.

StarTropics shared the same sense of exploration and adventure as other key Nintendo franchises of the time like Zelda and Metroid did. Though it enjoyed a less-popular sequel (Zoda’s revenge), there’s no good reason why it can’t be resurrected today.

Bringing It Back: Wii game, hands down. A lot of people have talked about using the Wiimote like a whip for Castlevania games, so why not a yo-yo in StarTropics? The setting is certainly interesting enough and there’s nothing else like it currently on the market.

The main problem might be that it was one of the few games developed by Nintendo R&D3, one of the company’s in-house studios that is primarily responsible for hardware improvements instead of creating software. This, of course, doesn’t mean that another team couldn’t handle a potential update.

Why not give it to Retro? Though I’d prefer it to remain top-down myself, a Metroid Prime-esque first-person interface would work well for exploring intricate island ruins and alien spaceships.

Of all the franchises I’ve listed here, this is hands down the one I’d like to see come back the most.

Conclusion

Nintendo seems fairly set in their ways at this point. With a new demographic to go after, it hardly makes financial sense to chase after old franchises that only the hardcore would still remember.

Sure, we’ve got Smash Bros. Brawl there to remind us of Nintendo’s glorious and unceremoniously forgotten past, and Virtual Console will (or already does) allow us to relive some of these experiences, but I want them renewed.

Even though I listed Super Mario RPG as one of my picks, I’ve begun to resent Nintendo’s mascot in recent years. I owned Mario everything as a kid. Mario sheets draped my bed, Mario Dixie Cups sat next to the sink in my bathroom. I even had the damned board game (oh yes, someone tried to make a board game out of Super Mario Bros.).

Playing Mario Galaxy made me fall in love with platforming all over again, but I could no longer relate to the plumber’s charm. In fact, I was slightly put off by it.

So why the hate? It must have something to do with the way we conceive nostalgia. We love to dredge up artifacts of our past as a confirmation of the great times we used to have. Each of the series I’ve listed can be linked to happy memories, even in the face of tough times. My family didn’t have a whole lot of money when most of these games came out, so I learned to really love and cherish playing them. Some of them I didn’t even own, but rented over and over and over again.

Mario remains with us, though. He’s not the only example, but the strongest one by far. He’s not so much my memory anymore, as he is an over-saturated cultural one. You can find people wearing Mario shirts who haven’t picked up a controller since they were ten. Yet, I’d snap up a StarTropics shirt the second it was available if King of Games suddenly decided they were going to make one. Hey, as I said at the very beginning of this article, I’m a hypocrite. :)

So dig deep into your archives Nintendo and dust off some of these oldies-but-goodies. Give them some fresh air tor breathe. You never know what hidden treasure you might have sitting in the attic!