The Transformers license has spawned many bad games in its long history. In fact, I can’t recall a single one that I was impressed with until Activision’s recent release of War For Cybertron for the Xbox 360 and PS3. As with any licensed property, it comes as little surprise that launching alongside them are versions for every other platform. Oddly, even taking the difference in hardware into account, the quality difference between Cybertron Adventures and War For Cybertron is like night and day.

The first mistake in Cyberton Adventures was in the story. To set the stage, the game is broken up into two campaigns - Autobots and Decepticons - with the same story being told through the eyes of each robotic faction. Next Level Games pretty much threw you into a sort of “highlight reel” of the events found in War Far Cybertron. While it may have sounded great on paper, the execution created a befuddled mess that was difficult to keep track of. I don’t think I really figured out what was going on until I was almost to the end of the Autobots campaign.

The second mistake was with the visuals. The dark and mechanical nature of Cybertron doesn’t mesh well with the low-res hardware of the Wii. In order to pull something like that off, a lot of care and attention would be needed to make sure it comes out right. Unfortunately in this case, the production values as a whole felt like typical licenced cannon fodder - quick and dirty. Trying to find any level of detail in this game was near impossible. As transforming robots, we should be able to make out some of the parts and pieces, yet here the transformations are an ugly mess of moving pixels. Furthermore, the environments themselves held a lot of wasted potential, where every location looked and felt no different than the last.

Having said that, an almost positive note is that the gameplay was somewhat servicable, although anyone who has played the afore mentioned War For Cybertron may be disappointed when comparing the two. The entire experience is an on-rails shooter. That in itself isn’t too bad, as dispersed throughout the game are vehicular sections where the Autobot or Decepticon in question would change forms and race to the next on-rails check point. It was a nice way to break things up and prevent monotony from setting in. The controls are pretty standard fare for a guided shooter: Use the WiiMote to aim the reticule, shoot and duck into cover with the Nunchuk picking up the weapon selection and zoom aim duties. In the vehicle-based areas, the Nunchuk steers and the WiiMote shoots both blasters and missiles.

What really hurt the gameplay was the overall generic feel. The player can’t pick the ‘bot they want to control and the weapons (of which there are four different ones) are the same for each. So regardless of whether you are controlling Bumblebee, Optimus, Megatron or AirRaid, they all play exactly the same. After 30 minutes of playtime repetition and redundancy set in, and switching characters should help remedy this but doesn’t.

Speaking of the weapons, they were an element that provided a tiny bit of strategy across all the battles. Initially I didn’t have to use anything but the sniper rifle (a personal favorite). However, as I progressed throughout the game, I found that switching it up depending on the enemy certainly made things quite a bit easier. The Gatling Gun actually proved to be the best selection against most of the foes I faced in the later half of the story, although the blaster and missile launcher both had their times to shine. Unfortunately, this tiny bit of depth wasn’t enough to combat the overall generic feel, which makes completing the game less of a desire and more of an obligation.

Probably the best part of the game was the audio. More specifically, Peter Cullen’s role as Optimus Prime. I think fans are at a point where there truly is no one who can replace Mr Cullen as the leader of the Autobots. As for the rest of the sound effects, they were a hit and miss experience. Some things - such as the gunfire - were decent, while the explosions and environmental sounds we less so.

Cybertron Adventures does have a couple of other facets. For instance, the Challenge Mode is a tiny selection of unlockable artwork, and there is also a co-operative gameplay option. If you disliked the main campaign, there is little to draw you into the Challenge Mode, and the artwork is more of a novelty than anything else. Furthermore, I can’t see subjugating my buddies to the campaign in co-op, but my 7-year old did have a good time playing it with me simply because her expectations from games haven’t developed yet.

Conclusion

Overall, that’s where the draw for Transformers: Cybertron Adventures is going to be. Any gamer over the age of 15 will be sorely disappointed with ugly visuals, bland gameplay, and a confusing story. However, the younger demographic may enjoy it as a fairly easy (except the end boss) on-rails shooter that will allow them to invite the neighbor kid over for some ‘bot blasting buddy action. Or, as in my case, it did make a nice afternoon diversion with some father/daughter co-op game time. I can’t say this is a 5-star experience, but if you can walk in with low enough expectations, there is enough there to warrant a Sunday rental.