Autobots vs Decepticons Battle

Autobots vs Decepticons Battle is a very entertaining mid-summer treat game

But there's a huge difference in Autobots vs Decepticons Battle are completely different experiences.

Pick the Autobots version, and you'll follow a mission arc that fits the "good guys."

On the Decepticons side, you'll be playing the bad guys who don't care what happens to the pesky earthlings.

Though both titles feature the same core mechanics, game engine, and visual style, everything else is independent.

Each game has its own characters, its own perspective on the movie's situations, its own missions and its own conclusion.

Even though you may think that separating the production into two versions might be an example of "milking a property,"

it doesn't feel that way in the final product -- each game is a full-length,

unique experience with enough going for both versions to justify the double trouble...and, almost, the double dip.

There's really no debate that the DS doesn't exactly have the same "oomph" under the hood as even the last generation of console game systems

-- so to expect the same level of production as the console on the DS wouldn't be fair. But it took on that challenge,

getting a similar "open world" design that Traveller pulled off on the 360,

systems to the smaller game device. The effort is definitely commendable, but the compromises are hard to ignore.

DS gamers get a completely open world experience where they can romp around, climb buildings,

leap from rooftop to rooftop, zoom around in vehicle form, and just have fun kicking around cars, trucks, and trashcans.

There's plenty to do in both versions of Transformers, like picking up object and throwing them, or uprooting poles and using them as weapons.

But Autobots vs Decepticons Battle's a bit light on the atmosphere -- environments are rather bare and lack detail,

but it's obviously more a limitation of the DS hardware's capabilities.

Transformers also suffers from obvious "we need to get it out before the movie, damn the bugs" syndrome,

and right from the start we've had issues with the game starting with a glitch where the lead transformer's first vehicle form refused to carry over to the first mission...

so you'd drive around as some unrecognizable blob with the camera having a hard time trying to figure out how to display such a form.

The camera also loves to get sucked into airborne vehicles -- a significant number of missions had to be aborted after backing too close to the camera and getting it stuck inside the 3D model.