I played this game a long time ago but didn't remember much of it so I decided to replay it. I'm surprised how solid this game is. It does a pretty good job at adapting the campaign of the console version with some new additions like Grimlock and Swoop. They never appeared in War for Cybertron so it was a welcome surprise. There's also way more playable characters. You can play the campaign as any character you have and aren't restricted to only using certain characters. You just have to find data discs throughout the game to unlock more characters to play as. There are some that don't even appear in War for Cybertron at all like Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus but you have to unlock them in the game's side content. The game's combat is very interesting. Every enemy and boss has a weakness to different types of attacks. The attacks you have are solid, laser and plasma and every character has access to some like Optimus has plasma and solid, Bumblebee has laser and solid etc. If an enemy shows a plasma icon, plasma attacks are way more effective and the rest is the same for laser and solid. There's also a level up system and stat distribution. Level up and you can level up your strength, endurance, firepower, skill and regeneration. Every character can unlock a perk when level up certain stats and those perks are things like more health, less damage taken away when attacks hit your shield, random chance of you shooting even more bullets etc. The boss fights in this game are actually somewhat difficult. Bosses shoot a lot of bullets and kinda devolves into a bullet hell game. You have to be careful when dodging because one wrong move, you'll be quickly killed. Trypticon was kinda annoying but he wasn't too bad. The side content was also pretty sizable. Was not expecting to play as the Decepticons at all. You can unlock a majority of the playable characters even some that don't appear in the console version such as Motormaster, Ramjet and Cyclonus. This is the only Transformers DS game that are split into 2 additions that allows you to play as both sides so that's neat. While the console version of War for Cybertron the better game, this game isn't all that bad. If you played that game, check it out. It's a pretty alright experience.

Played this game almost 2 years ago at the height of my interest of Megaten. I didn't expect much from this game since it's essentially the first game of the franchise if you don't count the Digital Devil Story games. I would've expected to not like the game since it would be missing a lot of things I came to be used to since they wouldn't have been created by then but despite that, SMT 1 is actually a really great game. It's no wonder why this game blew up in Japan. I'm honestly surprised by how much I like the game

I replayed this game and it’s definitely another underrated Transformers game that gets overlooked a lot. This game is a massive improvement over Transformers the Game from 2007 in so many ways.

My biggest problem with Transformers the Game was how incredibly simple combat is. You have your ranged weapons which almost every enemy and every boss blocks so it’s practically useless. You basically punch things to death. Bosses were insanely repetitive because you would have to throw a thing at someone to get them out of a special move they have so you can actually attack them.

How this game fixes that is by making it a 3rd person shooter. Enemies actually move around the field to shoot you and even climb buildings to get an advantage. Bosses operate in the same way and there were duo boss fights in the near end of the game in Egypt.

In order to make melee attacks as viable as ranged attacks, you have 2 advanced moves in the form of a melee attack and ground pound when transforming into robot mode. It is pretty useful and you are rewarded with a bonus which nets you more energon after finishing a level so you’re encouraged to use them.

The game is very fast paced. Every mission in the campaign has a timer and depending how quick you finish it, you get additional energon which you can use to upgrade your abilities like health, weapon cooldown, melee damage etc. Honestly it’s a good speedrunning game in that regard.

You go through the campaign with a fixed character but after it, you can replay the missions with anyone you want. You can also unlock some G1 episodes from achievements which is a neat novelty. Some of the dialogue after doing missions are actually kinda funny.

However my biggest complaint for this game is that it completely guts the free roam. It’s there but there’s literally nothing to do in it and you only unlock it after doing every mission in a zone. Might as well cut it out of the game and it wouldn’t make a difference.

Overall though, it’s a pretty solid Transformers game. It’s a massive improvement over Transformers the Game in almost every way possible it’s honestly funny. This version is on PS3 and Xbox 360 so it’s a little hard to get but if you can, I’d say grab it. You might like it