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The DS games are sweet
Nintendo DS
This is where I started out, and even though I did not talk about these games (there’s an Autobots game and a Decepticon game), I think I’m most excited for these games. Developer Rob Caminos had already explained the premise to me at breakfast. You play as an entirely new character that you do get to customize. The character does have his own dialogue and personality, so he won’t be some silent drone. The characters really will not be silent because there is more recorded dialogue for the DS games than there is for the console versions. There is a multiplayer mode in that you complete challenges for higher scores that are then uploaded to a website with something similar to a leaderboard with Autobots vs. Decepticons. It plays very much like a mix between a third person action game and an RPG. You level up, you fight enemies, you complete missions, and you can scan new vehicles for new alternate modes.

Yes, you can scan many different types of vehicles and change your alt. mode to affect your abilities. In true RPG fashion, there are tons of options for that customization, but there are a lot of palette swaps; however, the difference between something like a news helicopter and a police helicopter is more than meets the eye. Each vehicle mode will have different effects on stats, even if they share 3D models. Also worth noting is that your robot mode will change in appearance based on what the alt. mode is. I thought that was nice attention to detail.

Another similarity to an RPG is the level of dialogue. I skipped through a lot of it to get to the game (which, Rob, I swear I would never do if I didn’t have a time limit), but it’s worth noting that it is recorded and works to tell a slightly different story than the movie. In fact, Rob kept hinting at how dark the Decepticon ending is and that he was surprised that they got away with it.

The graphics on this game were astounding, especially considering this platform had a roughly 8 month development time. I can honestly say this is the best 3D I have seen on the DS and I told Rob that I thought it came close to PSP level. The draw distance wasn’t amazing on the night level I played, but the robot models look sharp and detailed. Speaking of models, G1 Starscream is a confirmed (likely unlockable) alt. mode for your character.

As far as plot goes, your character is Starscream’s protégé and you will be working for the Decepticons, but if movie Starscream is like his G1 namesake, then I would expect you to do some of his treachery for him. I did not get a chance to play the Autobots version, but I assume you play as a similar blank slate character on the good side. Finally, the only negative thing I really ran across with this version was that the shooting seemed a little unresponsive and I had difficulty learning the controls. I did run into control difficulty with some of the other versions, but I’ll address that issue later.

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