Transformers Animated is a video game for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 handheld based on the current Transformers television incarnation, Transformers Animated.

Plot

The story is centered around the rogue factory robots and Space Bridge episodes that can be found in the animated series. The first half would have the player fighting the rogue security bots running amok in the Sumdac factories while the second half would have the Autobots follow Megatron through the Space Bridge and into Cybertron. The voice actors in the animated series also lent their voices to the characters in the video game.

Game play

While this game features three-dimensional characters and environments, it mostly plays on a two-dimensional plane where the characters move from left to right or up and down. Unlike other games based on the Transformers franchise, this one is mainly a puzzle game.

There are 25 levels in total that can be found in the game, and it has two main modes: race mode and mission mode. In race mode, the player can use either Bumblebee, Optimus Prime or Prowl to race against the enemies or transform to robot mode in order to throw projectiles into an enemy to destroy them.

Mission mode

There are the standard three Autobots that the player can use: Optimus Prime, Bulkhead and Bumblebee. The player will guide them through several different stages while solving puzzles along the way. Each Autobot has a special skill that is only unique to them. Optimus Prime can use his axe to throw at his enemies and can use his grappling hook to climb the red steel girders scattered around the game. Bumblebee has his stingers that shoots electric bolts against enemies as well charge up generators to activate certain devices. He is also the only one among them that can jump and scale walls on his own. Bulkhead has his wrecking ball that he uses to throw against enemies and, being the heaviest of the three, is the only one heavy enough to step onto platform switches that open doors and turn on other devices. Using their own unique skills to solve the different puzzle rooms is the core gameplay, which is similar to The Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings is a side-scrolling puzzle/platform video game series which was developed by Silicon & Synapse . The first game, The Lost Vikings, was released in 1992 by publisher Interplay Entertainment for DOS, Amiga, Sega Mega Drive and SNES among others...

. There are boss fights in this game where the player is sent to stop Lockdown and Megatron. Stopping Megatron however involves a bit of puzzle solving as well wherein the player needs to utilize all three Autobots to defeat him.

Playable characters

For the most part, the Autobots Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead

Bulkhead (Transformers)

Bulkhead is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes. All incarnations of Bulkhead are Autobots and are green in color. He was introduced in Transformers: Energon as a Mega Vehicle and later redebuted in Transformers: Animated as a completely new character...

, and Prowl

Prowl (Transformers)

Prowl is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers series. "Prowl" is one of the most re-used American names in the assorted Transformers series, and its use has become almost synonymous with Autobots who possess a police car alternate mode...

are fully playable.