Game #1111: Transformers - Beast Wars Transmetals(Playstation 1)

  Less than meets the eye.

 A lot of people grew up with Transformers, well, I grew up with Beast Wars. It was amazing, and Cheetor was my favorite, so much so that he was the first transformers toys I ever got. Transforers: Beast Wars Transmetals is a fighting game, of all things, based on the season in which both heroes and villains got shiny new forms.

 The game is made up of eight basic characters, four Maximals(the good guys) and four Predacons. There are 4 hidden characters in VS mode, but the are nothing more than palette swaps of other characters. The is made up of Story Mode, VS, VS VPU, Survival and Training, as well as the curious TV Mode, which is just the Story mode but played entirely by the CPU, which is a novel idea to be sure. Most modes are pretty self-explanatory, but story mode is kinda interesting. Both Maximals and Predacons get their own campaigns, with a introductory cutscene and an ending cutscene. The game offers a grid that you must traverse from one end to another, and each block on the grid represents a fight, you can pick any character from your side for each battle. Something very interesting, even though Rhino isn't playable, he shows up in his Transmetal form, which NEVER made it into the show,  during maximal cutscenes!

 This is a 3-D Arena fighting game of all things. You have full 360 degree movement over small arenas, with different levels, obstacles and hazards. True to the show, characters have access to a Robot and Beast form, as well as a super basic vehicle form. The vehicle form is super lame, it can only move quickly and perform a tackle. While there are two attack buttons, in beast mode they both perform the same attack combo, and in robot mode they also perform the same combo, they come into play when you are in robot mode and standing far away from your opponent, as one button shoots orange, homing bullets or stronger, but not tracking, blue bullets. There's also a charge attack, by holding down either attack button, that is different depending on whether you are in Beast or Robot form.

 There's on mechanic that was fairly original, all things considered, how you stock up on super moves. Basically, a red bar will start filling over your health bar, once it reaches the other end of your life bar you get another stock. This means that the less health you have the faster you'll get more super move stocks! Super moves are preformed by pressing the two attack buttons, and there's a shortcut for it on the shoulder buttons, but for some reason, sometimes it simply refused to go off.

 The fighting mechanics are shallow to be sure, but worst of all, the gameplay is just boring. There's no fun combo mechanics and the game definitely doesn't make up for it with style. The one thing the game has going for it is that it features an animated version of Rhino's elusive transmetal form.

 3.0