One of the longest running and most recognizable franchises in toy and cartoon history has finally made its way to home entertainment in a game that doesn’t stink its way out of your console. Previous outings by Transformers in games haven’t been anything to write home about, but thankfully, Prelude to Energon changes that. Although it deals with the Transformers: Armada series and not the generation one series that most of us remember from the 80’s, many of the characters in the game are the same with some alterations, but still easily recognizable. The story line is that during a battle on Cybertron between Autobot and Decepticon, there is a small race of bots called Mini-cons, which can be used to increase or add additional powers to the host who uses the little guy. During the war, these Mini-cons high tail it out of there heading for Earth, but they didn’t make the greatest of landings and now each of them are spread out across the globe in their stasis pods. Now you and your team of other Autobots need to track them all down and get your hands on them before Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons.

Being that most of the game takes place outside on Earth based locales, forests and snowy wastes lands, the atmosphere is pretty plain and bland. But it does convey where you are supposed to be all the same. The levels are quite large and you have free roam over them to explore for all those crafty little min-cons, especially after you get farther into the game and have the ability to jump higher and glide to higher ledges and hills. Throughout the game, you will have a Mini-con that will follow you around and you will be able to “powerlink” with it to slow the action down around you. It’s a nice feature but hardly used.

Transformers doesn’t have the most crisp graphics in the world and it is more noticeable when there are a lot of “Decepticlones”, the Decepticon way of making new and multiple enemies, around. The sun reflections in the water and off the player model itself are very noticeable and look great when you are running through a level with the sun beaming on you. Of course the coolest thing about being a transformer means that you can, well…Transform. The transformations are smooth and flawless but unfortunately the only Autobots you can choose from transform into cars. But they do make the trek across a level go a lot faster when you are driving instead of running, not to mention playing bowling of sorts by smashing through a group of Decepticlones. The rag doll physics could have used some work. When you get knocked down, you won’t get back up until you’re done flopping around. If you get knocked down a hill, it can sometimes take quite awhile for you to stop moving to be able to get back on your feet again.

For each of the 8 levels that are in the game, you will be told at the start how many Mini-con and data-con there are to be found. Data-cons are discs that you can find that will unlock features from the main menu, such as toy schematics, soundtracks, PSA’s and concept art. When you make your way through each level looking for the Mini-cons, there are warp gates that you can use to save and or go back to your headquarters to get replenished with health before continuing on. Once you have a warp gate open you can return to it anytime from HQ and is an easy way to get to the middle of a mission without having to start it from the beginning. Just like all games, at the end of each level will be the bosses, who are some of the best Decepticons ever created, not to mention one level that has the biggest boss of any video game that can be recalled.

For the entire game you are tracking down these little guys but in the end it seems very anti-climactic when you go to fight the final boss. After all, you don’t use the mini-con load outs and it makes the whole game feel as though it was for nothing. The other thing that would have been nice to have added in the game would be to actually need to use the other transformers on your team. As was said earlier, you have the choice of three Autobots, all of which have their advantages and disadvantages, but you can play through the entire game with just one of them and not need to switch at all without much consequence. Having a plane or a boat in the line up would have given the game a bit more depth and more variety.

With the single player storyline as short as it is, it really could have been an interesting development to include multiplayer in one form or another. Playing multiplayer against other players that could transform into vehicles would have been something that could be expanded on quite considerably but unfortunately there is nothing at all. The Transformers have made it to the PS2 and they sure look great doing it. It may not be the most intense game ever made but it will definitely please transformer fans new and old alike.