Transformers: Cybertron Adventures (Wii)

[Ghegs]

Anybody give this a shot? I happened to catch a glimpse of it and noticed that it's an arcade-style rail shooter. Further investigation revealed that it even has a multiplier-based scoring system (destroy enemies to increase multiplier, taking cover [which heals you] makes the multiplier go down fast). All the reviews have been largely negative, but it seems at least a part of that comes from being disappointed over how the game is not the PC/PS3/Xbox360 version. And of course, the whole scoring aspect is totally ignored. In fact, reading the reviews is like reading a mainstream review about a shmup:

"Extremely short"
"Gameplay is extremely dated"
"There is no challenge, and with unlimited ammo and health regenerating quickly, this game is too easy, even for young gamers."

Could very well be they're right, but I'd like to hear the opinion of someone who I can trust to know what they're talking about to tell if the game has any potential for high-score play. I'm sure it's no S&P2, but maybe worth picking up from the bargain bin, which I'm sure the game will end up in very quickly.

[E. Randy Dupre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NTsos-Q7Vs

Looks like a particularly poor Gears clone with uber-basic duck shoot sections inbetween. I'll never understand why it's so difficult to make an awesome Transformers game - the whole premise could've been invented for the medium.

[Ghegs]

Yeah, I watched a few of that guy's vids about the game, but since he plays the game without any regard to the scoring they don't provide the answer I was looking for.

The PC/PS3/Xbox 360 version of the game is a pretty awesome Transformers game, btw.

[dan76]

I'm going to pick this up as soon as the price drops. I love lightgun shooters anyhow, but the multiplier does seem like an interesting scoring mechanic - though in some of the videos it seems to go down at weird times. Also, the way the game handles the sniper rifle looks really good, plus the fact that it's more of an old school transformers style they've gone for. Online leaderboards would have been nice.

The xbox version just looks like Gears of War in a different skin, and as I'm not a big fan and can't stand forced co-op I'm glad the Wii got its own game. It's surprising how much hate there is for lightgun games... anyhow, I'll post some impressions when I've tracked down a copy. Hopefully the key to enjoying the game is to approach it more like a shooter.

[Ghegs]

Went and picked this up and to my surprise it's actually pretty decent fun. The story mode takes less than two hours to blaze through and is really only there to open the stages up in challenge mode, from where the score-hunting can take place. Each one of the 16 stages only lasts somewhere between 6 and 12 minutes and each stage is an island - the score doesn't carry from one stage to the next, which makes score attacking individual stages the real meat of the game.

The stages are further divided into subsections where your character is either in robot form or vehicle form. At the end of each subsection your multiplier (which the game calls Power Up Meter) is reset and you get points based on how high it was at when the subsection ended, but you don't get these points until the end of the stage for some reason. You increase your multiplier, which goes at x1, x2, x3 and x5, by killing enemies or destructable scenery. Taking cover restores your health but it also depletes the multiplier quickly, so the desired tactic is to spend as little time as possible in cover. Merely tapping the cover button is often enough to dodge a heavier attack while still returning some health but without taking too much out of the multiplier meter. At higher multipliers your weapons also get more powerful and some weapons get larger ammo capacities. For example, at x1 you only have one sniper rifle shot before having to reload, while at x5 you have three.

Speaking of weapons, there are four different ones and you can choose between them at will: Lock-on Missiles, Sniper Rifle, Gatling Gun and Cannon/Blaster depending on the character. Figuring out what weapon or weapons are the best choice for each encounter is the key here. In addition to the normal multiplier, it's also possible to destroy an enemy with a critical shot to the head resulting in a further doubling of the points gained. This is of course done the easiest with the Sniper Rifle.

At the end of each stage you get extra points based on the amount of enemies destroyed, accuracy and time taken. These scores are tallied up and the bonus score is increased by a percentage depending on your difficulty level: playing on Normal gives you 10% extra while playing on Hardcore gives a whooping 50%. Sadly there aren't high score tables for each difficulty, only the highest score for each stage is displayed.

So, the way to high scores is to play on Hardcore difficulty, figure out the best order in which to destroy enemies, get critical shots whenever possible and use cover as little as possible. It's honestly pretty fun, it isn't terribly deep but it's not bad, either. The only thing that hurts the experience is how the game handles dying: you're given a choice to either quit to main menu, restart the current stage or restart the current subsection. If one picks the last choice, all your score from before is retained and your death isn't penalized in any way, it isn't even mentioned anywhere. Sure it makes practicing harder subsections easy (appreciated on Hardcore difficulty which kills you fast, even on the first stage) but after figuring out the best tactic it's too easily abused. Much better choice would've been to either deduct from your score for each death or only allow restarting the whole stage.

Still, for a Transformers fan who wants some lite score-hunting it's not too bad a choice for 10-15 bucks.

[dan76]

Good write up.

With regards to dying, I think it adds to the time taken to complete the stage, so that's some kind of penalty.
Also, I found getting any kind of multiplier really tough on hardcore, but because of the 50% bonus, my score was much higher than breezing through normal difficulty with loads of multipliers. A shame really because building the multiplier is really fun, but very very difficult in hardcore - I guess that's the challenge.

An online leaderboard would've made all the difference.

[Ghegs]

With regards to dying, I think it adds to the time taken to complete the stage, so that's some kind of penalty.

I don't think it does, on the first Autobot stage I got a lower time on Hardcore where I died several times compared to playing it on Normal where I didn't die once. Still, the no-penalizing-death doesn't completely ruin the score play since the rule's the same for all, it's just more lenient than what we're used to seeing in shmups and like.

And hey, since you're also playing the game, let's get our scores up in this thread.

[Ghegs]

Just to give people a glimpse of what playing the game for score looks like I made a video of the first Autobot mission where I scored 176,887.

[dan76]

Nice video - good to see the game played properly. Ok, so these are my scores after playing through the game a couple of times, once on normal, and once on hardcore difficulty - I'm pretty sure most of the scores are from hardcore. I also played Autobots level 1 in challenge mode a few times to try and unlock stuff - yay, pictures...

Anyhow, it's a start.

Autobots
Level 1: 120337
Level 2: 125062
Level 3: 148987
Level 4: 116812
Level 5: 123675
Level 6: 120262
Level 7: 158112
Level 8: 78815

Decepticons
Level 1: 95662
Level 2: 85497
Level 3: 129900
Level 4: 182025
Level 5: 206100
Level 6: 121575
Level 7: 189637
Level 8: 155100