''The Transformers'' is a platform

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

game based on the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'' franchise. It was written by Denton Designs and released by Ocean Software for the Sinclair Spectrum and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

home computers in 1986.

Gameplay

In the game, the

Autobot The Autobots are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. The Autobots are living robots from the planet Cybertron who, like most Transformers, are each imbued with a unique "life force" known as a " ...

s are searching for four parts of an energon cube which have been scattered around a city, which consists of a number of platforms and ladders. The

Decepticon The Decepticons are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. Serving as the main antagonists in the franchise, their goals include conquering their fictional homeworld planet Cybertron, defeating ...

s are also seeking the energon cube, and will destroy the Autobots in order to retrieve it. The player controls five Autobots: Optimus Prime, Hound,

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...

and

Bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

, one at a time. When not in use, the Autobots hide in Defensa-Pods; while inside these pods they cannot be harmed, and slowly recharge their energy. The Decepticons are represented by

Megatron Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a villaino ...

, Soundwave,

Starscream Starscream is a character in the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the second-in-command of the Decepticons, a villainous faction of alien robots that s ...

, Buzzsaw, Skywarp, Laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy and Rumble. The Decepticons can regenerate and do not transform. Each Autobot has three attributes (Shields, Power and Weapons) with each character having them in different distributions (Optimus Prime has a high Power rating, average Shields and low Weapons, while Mirage has a high Weapons rating but lower Power and Shields). Each character can transform between their vehicle and robot forms by facing forward and pressing the fire button. Unlike the cartoon, all the Autobots can fly while in robot form, although they travel faster by using their vehicle modes. Driving off the end of platforms or into stationary objects will cause the character to die.

Reception

The game's received mixed reviews - '' Sinclair User'' gave the game 4 stars out of five, while '' Your Sinclair'' gave it 6/10 and '' Crash'' gave it 60%. Max Phillips from ''Your Sinclair'' said the game was ''"slick but nothing new, the keyboard controls are awful and the cassette inlay is diabolical"'' while John Gilbert of ''Sinclair User'' said ''"Transformers is a game where a high score is all-important, and I am sure that once you have found the energy cube you will still enjoy a scrap with the Decepticons"''. When asked, in an interview with Julian Rignall of ''Crash'', which of their games they were least pleased with, Ally Noble, one of the developers of ''The Transformers'' admitted that it was ''"definitely Transformers... it's really a personal thing, we all like different products, but I think Transformers was an embarrassment"''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Transformers (1986 video game) 1986 video games Commodore 64 games Denton Designs games Ocean Software games Platformers Shoot 'em ups Single-player video games Transformers: Generation 1 video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Fred Gray Video games set in the United States ZX Spectrum games