Transformers

Review – Transformers – Cybertron – Downshift

Transformers have had a pretty low point in their life the last few years. Armada and Energon has some fairly weak toy design in terms of sculpt and articulation. Seriously, what’s up with Armada Hot Shot’s shoulders?

Still, Energon was better than Armada, and Cybertron has been better than Energon. Lately, Cybertron has even been better than itself. The toys are starting to receive joints that make sense again, they have all sorts of neat detailing, they have better alt modes, and better transformations.

One of the latest Transformers released to the market is Downshift. Now, you may remember Energon Downshift who was highly reminiscent of Wheeljack in design and colors. This version of Downshift shows homage only in head design. This 70s style muscle car Transformer more closely resembles Alternators Wheeljack than G1 Wheeljack. And so as far as I’m concerned, this toy can be Downshift, brother of Wheeljack, and Energon Downshift can take the roll of Wheeljack. Confused?

As mentioned, Downshift’s alternate mode is a 70s style muscle car. It’s not styled after any one car but shares elements of the Barracuda, Mustangs, Cameros, and others. It’s colored primarily green with black stripes, hood and soft top. There is some light detailing in the interior of the car as well but they don’t extend below the cut off between the top and body of the car.

The transformation isn’t too complex and the end result is slightly reminiscent of the older styled G1 cars such as Jazz and Prowl. Yet the transformation itself is not all that similar to those old toys. Downshift’s robot mode is pretty solid all around though cut joints in the arms as well as an unhindered neck joint would have helped a bit.

One aspect of the last several lines is gimmicks. Generally, many of the gimmicks involve sticking keys or smaller robots it some orifice on the larger robots to shoot missiles or open claws. Downshift’s cyberkey gimmick causes the grill of his car mode to open up into a sort of claw. It’s effectively neat, especially since it still works when the rear half of the car is folded downwards in robot mode, but it’s not particularly useful for anything cool. The better gimmick is the pair of shoulder mounted missile launchers Downshift includes. They not only give Downshift minicon hardpoints to use but they can be attached to the sides of the car mode for a heavily armed 70s muscle tank look.

Ok, yeah, sticking the launchers on the sides of the car is really dumb and ruins the look of the best vehicle mode ever in the history of Transformers.

Downshift is a really great toy and would make a great addition to any Transformer collection. You might even like it if you’re just big on 70s muscle cars.

Review – Transformers – Energon – Alpha Q

Feb 28th, 2005

by Ramen Junkie.

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Every once in a while we get a Transformer’s toy that doesn’t actually Transform into anything. Alpha Quintesson (Alpha Q) is one such Transformer. We first met the Quintessons back in Transformers the Movie. They led a pack of hungry Sharkticons and liked to toss random bots into pits of doom. As it turns out the Quintessons were more intertwined with the history and origin of the Transformers race then was originally believed.

Of course those Quints also looked like Eggs and had 5 faces (of darkness!). This is Energon. I couldn’t tell you what alpha Q’s role is in Energon since the show is abysmally unwatchable. That doesn’t mean it can’t have halfway decent toys. This Quintesson is quite a bit different from it’s ancestors, though it still shares some traits. Instead of just being a ball with faces plastered to it, this Quint is a sort of giant Snake robot with a face inside the mouth. Which brings us to the first gimmick. When a button on the back of the neck is pressed, the face spins to a different one. There are three available faces to choose from.

There is one other primary gimmick to this toy besides the face spinning. The toy includes three rubber bendy tentacles. The bendyness is great and they hold a verity of positions. Also wheels on the bottom of the base cause the tentacles to twirl menacingly as you roll Alpha Q around. One tentacle features a small yellow pincer, the second features some sort of purple blob, possibly wires or electricity, and the third tentacle features a red chainsaw. The chainsaw arm is great for dispatching the many tree based transformers alpha Q may encounter 9see Botanica).

Other gimmicks include a head mounted missile launcher and ports for at least 9 Energon chips. Alpha Q has articulation at the jaws, universal shoulders, hinged and balled elbows (4 arms), and a hinge at the top of his neck. The articulation isn’t huge but it’s substantial enough for the character design.

Though cool, this figure isn’t without it’ flaws. The waist joint could use a little more range of motion, particularly in the forward direction. It also would be nice if the snake mouth could fold up out of the way a bit more. The face can barely be seen back up in there. I can’t say I really care muck for the spinning tentacles gimmick either. It can be hard to pose the tentacles just right (due to their tentacle nature) and then a slight bump of the wheels could throw everything all right off.

Then there is the part where Alpha Q doesn’t transform. He’s not supposed to, but if you’re looking for a Transformer, don’t bother with Alpha Q. For the most part otherwise, it’s a decent action figure, though one that’s probably not for everyone.

Review – Beast Wars: Transmetals (PS1)

Jul 9th, 2000

by Ramen Junkie.

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COMMENTS
1. In the Predacon opening video Megatron specifically refers to the name of
the Predacon ship as the Darkside. Isn’t this only the second reference
suggesting this? I guess that sort of makes it more official.

2. There are lots of little details from the show in there, which give it a
really nice touch.

3. This game could not possible fall into show continuance though as BA is
in he Transmetal 2 form and everyone else is in Transmetal form.

4. There are various extra things to do. One is looking through a gallery
of all the Transmetal (and a few Transmetal 2) toys. You can review and CG
movies you’ve passed through, you can review any CG stills you’ve seen, and
you can listen tot he voice and music soundtracks.

5. There are several shots during CG sequences that include non playable
characters like Depthcharge, TM2 Dinobot, Optimal Optimus and TM2 Cheetor.
Though playing as OPOp would be REALLY cool.

6. While Inferno is mentioned once, the game does nothing to explain where
Dinobot and Inferno have gotten off to. Tigatron and Airrazor can sort of
be written off as being taken away by the Vok or something since the game
seems to take place sometime in Season 2.

7. The personalities of the characters leave much to be desired. Optimus’
lines all basically amount to “Charge in and attack! We have to defeat
them!”; Silverbolt is basically “Where’s Black Arachnia?”; Rampage is “I’m
evil and have godlike strength, I want to break things.” It is a little
better from there, as those three seem like the worst of the lot.

Graphics (8/10)
All the graphics are pretty good. The in battle characters are somewhat
blocky, but it’s not very noticeable unless in a close up, and it’s probably
seems a lot worse than it is due to being used to seeing the nice smooth
Mainframe CG from he show. The CG movies are great though. They look like
scenes cut straight from the TV. I’m not sure if Mainframe did any work on
them or not though, if not then I’m pretty impressed. Also Transmetal
Rhinox an Waspinator make their CG debuts in this and they look pretty nice.
The battle fields seem somewhat flat and boring but that may be due to
hardware limitations. I imagine the N64 version looks a bit better in the
actual gameplay area, but probably worse in the video department.

Sound (10/10)
It’s very nice that they got the real voice actors to do the voices. If
they aren’t the real ones that I am VERY impressed by the impersonations.
All of the 8 main fighters with the possible exception of Megs (it may be my
imagination but he sounds a little off), have their normal voices. Others
like Rhinox and Black Arachnia don’t however. They are sort of close but
they are definitely not correct. I also listened to Ravage’s lines through
my computer and he doesn’t sound the same either. Also there were some
other lines with a bunch of Autobot references that I found and could not
identify the speaker but they might have been Rhinox’s. Also these guys
like to talk, but there is so much variety in the lines that it doesn’t get
old. The sound effects are nice, but they are somewhat just general blaster
sounds for the most part. The music actually sound a lot like something
that would be in a Mega Man game, which I feel is a great thing since the
Mega Man games have great music. some people may be disappointed by the
lack of standard Beast Wars music and themes however, you’ll never hear the
Beast Wars theme, or Silverbolt’s cheesy trumpets, or any of that in this
game.

Gameplay (8/10)
I haven’t played any fighters in a long time, but this one does add some
nice refreshing twists tot he genre. It does have some drawbacks though.
For starters, in story mode, the fighters are divided into teams. Which
means you’ll never have a Maximal fight a Maximal, but also means there are
only four players you’ll go up against, which means you’ll be getting some
repeat fights. I believe no matter what you’ll have to fight someone twice,
even when you choose the shortest route to the enemy base. But on the plus
side, you can change fighter between rounds, and if you loose you’ll simply
loose the ability to pick that character, and can try again with one of the
remaining players. Also the controls are different than most 3D fighters in
that up moves you up, and left moves left, etc, then there is a jump button
instead of pushing up on the controller. The controls are a bit
disappointing however. L2 and R2 are not used at all. R1 is just the combo
attack of pushing C(circle) and T(Triangle) together. X transforms,
S(Square) jumps, C and T are your attack buttons. At long range C and T
will fire any long range weapons, up close they are used for hand to hand
combat. also you can charge up for a stronger attack and earn super
attacks. There are also various charging moves. I haven’t figured out any
other moves yet really.
Also some other modes include Vs Mode, where you fight 1 on 1 against CPU
or Human; and Survivor, where you play one round battles until you loose.
The difficulty settings range from easy (enemy mostly runs and hides and
occasionally attacks), normal (Standard fighting, fairly easy to win
though), and hard (Default setting and very difficult, I lost 2 of my four
Maxies on the first enemy, Enemy will fire his weapon constantly and whip
off special moves as soon as the come up and there is a clear shot, gets
very difficult when the enemy is weak and he gets special moves constantly.)

Overall (8.7/10)
Definitely worth it if you have a PSX and are a fan of the Beast Wars
show. The action is fast paced and fun, thought he plot is relatively dull
(Maximals: Let’s lead a charge against the Preds while they are on the run!
Preds: Let’s attack the Maximal Base). If otherwise, I’d say it’s a pretty
good game for fans of the fighting Genre. It has some unique qualities
about it, and has several modes of play.