Ah... Nostalgia hit me hard. I just found this old DS cartridge lying around. I looked back on all the fun times I had with this game. The first thing I did was head to the VGR to write up a review on how excellent I thought this game was. And now I am.
Graphics - 7/10
For a DS game, I thought the Graphics were pretty up to par. However, upon closer examination, the terrain is somewhat blocky, as well as the enemies, both autobot and military. The transformation from robot to car and vise versa is also not as fluid as it could be, but as a handheld game, I think its best to cut it some slack in this category.
Sound - 9/10
This game's sound is really nice. The robots sound static-y and grizzled, as they should. The clanking of metal and gunfire is also pretty realistic sounding. The explosions are somewhat sub par though.
The soundtrack is fits with the games atmosphere; it is kind of what you would expect from an action movie, loud and racing. Very immersive.
Addictiveness - 10/10
I found this game very addictive to play for several reasons:
1. The story was genuinely difficult. In my prime playing this game I think I reached the final mission and stopped. (The boss was hard, in my defense.)
2. The "scan" feature. I could rant about how awful a decision it was to take this feature out of the sequel, but I dare not even speak of that game. If you like Pokémon and "collecting 'em all!" or you're an achievement hunter out to pin down every last accomplishment, you would fall in love with this simple, yet innovative control right away. Essentially, this feature would allow you to scan vehicles and then transform into them. At will. You could be a rocket firing SUV, then when under attack? Become a Tank. That's why this feature really hooked me.
3. This is one of the only sandbox games I know about for the DS. And not only is it darned good, but you can blow stuff up. Which is a plus.
Story - 8/10
You are a Decepticon. You're sent to Earth by your "Lord Starscream" to assist Barricade in investigating strange signals. Oh yeah; and Autobots want to interfere because they help inferior life forms. Anyways, this obviously pans out to be a much bigger plot involving Megatron and Starscream - the lesser of two evils. It also touches up on the Allspark. However, I'm not going to spoil this as the story is still pretty cool.
Depth - 10/10
This game doesn't take all that long to beat, as difficult as it is. Though not many missions, the game more than makes up for it with a leveling system, scanning feature, and to an extent, multiplayer. And besides, I've probably logged hours upon hours in this games free roam, destroying Tanks and ravaging my way to the top of buildings.
Difficulty - 7/10
This game is not hard until the final boss, which I wasn't able to beat. So there is a very large gap between being difficult and being easy. All in all, solely because of that last boss "raining on my parade", this game could easily bring a 7 for difficulty.
OVERALL RATING:
8.5
Ah... Nostalgia hit me hard. I just found this old DS cartridge lying around. I looked back on all the fun times I had with this game. The first thing I did was head to the VGR to write up a review on how excellent I thought this game was. And now I am.
Graphics - 7/10
For a DS game, I thought the Graphics were pretty up to par. However, upon closer examination, the terrain is somewhat blocky, as well as the enemies, both autobot and military. The transformation from robot to car and vise versa is also not as fluid as it could be, but as a handheld game, I think its best to cut it some slack in this category.
Sound - 9/10
This game's sound is really nice. The robots sound static-y and grizzled, as they should. The clanking of metal and gunfire is also pretty realistic sounding. The explosions are somewhat sub par though.
The soundtrack is fits with the games atmosphere; it is kind of what you would expect from an action movie, loud and racing. Very immersive.
Addictiveness - 10/10
I found this game very addictive to play for several reasons:
1. The story was genuinely difficult. In my prime playing this game I think I reached the final mission and stopped. (The boss was hard, in my defense.)
2. The "scan" feature. I could rant about how awful a decision it was to take this feature out of the sequel, but I dare not even speak of that game. If you like Pokémon and "collecting 'em all!" or you're an achievement hunter out to pin down every last accomplishment, you would fall in love with this simple, yet innovative control right away. Essentially, this feature would allow you to scan vehicles and then transform into them. At will. You could be a rocket firing SUV, then when under attack? Become a Tank. That's why this feature really hooked me.
3. This is one of the only sandbox games I know about for the DS. And not only is it darned good, but you can blow stuff up. Which is a plus.
Story - 8/10
You are a Decepticon. You're sent to Earth by your "Lord Starscream" to assist Barricade in investigating strange signals. Oh yeah; and Autobots want to interfere because they help inferior life forms. Anyways, this obviously pans out to be a much bigger plot involving Megatron and Starscream - the lesser of two evils. It also touches up on the Allspark. However, I'm not going to spoil this as the story is still pretty cool.
Depth - 10/10
This game doesn't take all that long to beat, as difficult as it is. Though not many missions, the game more than makes up for it with a leveling system, scanning feature, and to an extent, multiplayer. And besides, I've probably logged hours upon hours in this games free roam, destroying Tanks and ravaging my way to the top of buildings.
Difficulty - 7/10
This game is not hard until the final boss, which I wasn't able to beat. So there is a very large gap between being difficult and being easy. All in all, solely because of that last boss "raining on my parade", this game could easily bring a 7 for difficulty.
OVERALL RATING:
8.5 
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