0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Beast Wars Transformers
Beast Wars Transformers is a third person
shooter based on the first season of the animated tv show. The game was
developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Cambridge and published by Hasbro
Interactive for the Playstation and Windows.
The game released first in North America with a
December 5th 1997 release date, Europe and Japan would have to wait
until the following March for the games release. Europe received the game on
the 19th of March 1998, while Japan got it a week later on the 26th,
Atari would publish the European release while Takara would handle the
publishing in Japan.
Notable people who worked on this game, Alan
McCarthy who was the Game Designer as well as Lead Programmer, he would work as
the Main Programmer on MediEvil II in 2000, the Engine Programmer for 2003s
Primal. More recently he worked as Additional Production staff on F1 2015 and
worked as a Senior Producer from F1 2017.
Tameem Antoniades who worked as a Programmer on
the game, worked as a writer on the 2010 release Enslaved Odyssey to the West,
he was also the Creative Director and worked on the Video and Cinematics. He is
listed as the Chief Creative Ninja for Heavenly Sword and more recently the
well received HellBlade Senua’s Sacrifice with Antoniades writing the games
story.
Iain Brown also worked on MediEvil II from
2000, working as a Main Programmer on the game, he spent time working on the
Burnout series, including Takedown, Revenge and Burnout Paradise The Ultimate
Box, with Brown working on the Programming side of things, a role he would hold
for the 2016 release No Man’s Sky.
The game allows the player to play on either
side the Maximals or the Predacons, with both sides trying to sabotage the
other and prevent them from gaining an advantage in the Beast Wars. Each of the
two sides has five playable either Maximals or Predacons as well as a sixth
character these can only be unlocked by
either finding their stasis pod in a specific level, while the other unlockable
character in only accessible in rescue missions.
Each of these two unlockable characters have
unique strengths and weaknesses, all characters also have a health meter and
Energon tolerance meter, the latter constantly goes down while either side are
in their robot form, transforming into their beast mode will slowly replenish
their tolerance meter.
If the player does not change back into their
beast mode their health will start to deteriorate from the Energon radiation in
the environment, this radiation will continue to eat away at the player
characters health until it reaches 0 and kills the character, to transform to
and from your beast mode you press the triangle button.
Characters can be revived by finding the mini
game icon in the same level, this will start a mini game featuring Alrazor or
Terrorsaur, completing the mini game allows the player to recover a fallen
ally. The game features 24 missions through desert, urban, polluted and
volcanic environments.
The game is split into two 12 mission campaigns
one each for either the Maximal or Predacon campaign. The game makes use of the
transformation mechanic during the course of the levels, each transformer has
an upgradable weapon as well, weapons are only applicable when in Robot mode.
Prior to starting a mission you will have the
choice of which Maximal or Predacon you choose depending on which campaign you
are playing through, each of the available characters have their own stats,
with different Maximal or Predacon better suited to certain tasks.
These stats included things like endurance, energon
resistance, running speed and firepower. A characters endurance dictates the
size of the characters health bar, which determines how many hits they can take
before being taken down by enemy fire.
The Energon resistance stat determines how
resistant to the environment you are when in Robot mode, this will also dictate
how often you have to change between the two modes, some areas of the level
have little or no Energon radiation while other areas can be saturated with
radiation.
During the course of the missions you are
likely to take damage during combat, to replenish your characters health, this
can be done in one of two ways, larger ships when shot down drop health pick
ups, as well as being able to find them around the levels, they appear as a
first aid cross icon.
Running speed not only dictates how fast you
can move on foot, it also influences you far your character can jump, with a
faster character being able to jump further, when switched to Beast Mode all
characters move faster and jump further.
The characters firepower stats is only
applicable when in Robot mode, as none of the characters can attack while in
Beast mode. This stat effects how much damage is inflicted on an enemy when
fired at, the game has no cool down period for weapons fire allowing continual
firing, the game also features an auto lock for targeting enemies.
Basic controls for the game, traversing through
the 24 levels in the game is done by using the D-Pad, characters can jump using
the X button as well as having the ability to sidestep, this is done with the
L1 or R1 shoulder buttons. As previously mentioned each Transformer has their
own animal state and can be switched to by pressing the triangle button, weapons
can be fired by using the Square button.
Transformers Beast Wars is based on and is a
continuation of the 1984 TV series and Animated Film and is a part of the
larger Transformers franchise. Beast Wars is focussed on the small group of Maximal’s,
these are the new Autobots that are led by Optimus Prime and the Predacons
which are led by Megatron.
The Beast Wars are set 300 years after the
Great War, after a dangerous persuit through transwarp space, both the Maximal’s
and Predacon’s crash land on a primitive and uncivilised world, this world has
dangerously high levels of Energon, with later the planet being revealed to be
a prehistoric Earth, with an artificial moon.
Taking place sometime during the 4 million year
period in which the Autobots and Decepticons were put into suspended animation
from the first episode of the original TV show. Autobots and Decepticons are
forced to take on the forms of organic beasts in order to function without going
into statis lock
Critically the game was averagely received,
from the reviews available on the site I use reviews range from an above
average 65 score all the way down to a poor 23 rating from one reviewer. As usual though
we will start will the best of them, which comes from NowGamer.
The reviewers main criticism of the game is for
the game difficulty, with the reviewer finding even on the lowest difficulty
level you will find you transformer constantly getting blow to pieces after
about 30 seconds. The reviewer continued though by saying, once you have
mastered not getting blown up after 30 seconds, you will find Beast Wars
Transformers quite an enjoyable romp, although not in the same league as MDK,
not by a long shot! Nothing more than average.
A small drop down to a 60 rating for the next
review which comes from Gamezilla, with the reviewer calling the game decent,
but the reviewer was still disappointed, with the end results being the game
not living up to the potential of the well established Transformers it is based
on.
Gamezilla’s reviewer also commented on the game
difficulty calling it pretty tough, with even the easy levels fairly
unforgiving. The reviewer likes the transformers and was excited about the game, but in the
end they found themselves getting a bit frustrated with the gameplay, with the
lack of a mid level save feature being another problem for them. Concluding the
review had the following to say on the game. if you are a fan of the show --
and like a game that will challenge you -- you might want to give Beast Wars
Transformers a try.
GameSpot were next up with an average as you
can get 50 score for the game, the reviewer calling the game a tolerable over
the shoulder shooter. The reviewer finding the games controls to be adequate
with the exception of targeting issues. The reviewer question weather or not
the game would have been better if it was based on the original “cars, trucks, jets
and tape decks” Transformers rather than these silly animals.
The penultimate review comes from Game
Revolution who also scored the game at an average as you can get 50. The
reviewer finding the game not what they expected, with the review expecting the
same kind of animations as the cartoon, the reviewer however found the game to
look more like a knock off of the real thing.
The reviewer did praise the levels as being
drawn well, however they found that the robots when in Beast Mode were very
disappointing, combined with the average graphics, with slow and unresponsive
controls the reviewer concluded that the game is not worthy of bearing the
Transformers name.
Lastly were have a 23 rated review from IGN,
the reviewer for the game calling it a frustrating experience that no one
should have to go through. Graphics wise the reviewer called them unappealing, the
review continued by saying, they look even more first gen that the Toshinden.
The reviewer continued by calling the level
design bland and confusing, character movement was also another big issue for
them, with characters taking silly little steps and when they turn around the
reviewer found they looked like they were desperate for a pee. The review also
found the controls to be sloppy and loose, resulting in your robot sliding
along the walls of corridors more often than not.
This is the part of 0
to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the
title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this
title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,
eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very
location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge
stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable
at other retailers.
So lets get down to
business with Gamedude, who will give you $10 if you are looking to trade in
your copy of Beast Wars Transformers. If on the other hand you are in the
market for a copy of the game form Gamedude you will be looking at an outlay of
$19 for a copy
Moving over to
Retrogames.co.uk where we sadly don’t find the game in stock or even lists. So
we will quickly head over to eStarland.com where we find two copies of the game
currently available, a complete used copy as well as a disc only copy.
Starting with the
complete copy which can be picked up for $27.95, the second copy on offer is a
disc only copy of the game, this can be picked up for $16.77. Also on offer is
a trade in for this game, with eStarland willing to pay up to $13.00 for a
complete copy of Beast Wars Transformers.
Lastly we have
Amazon.com where we find a fair supply of the game available, again we find a
decent number of the copies available being disc only ones. We do find a good
condition and complete copy of the game, however this copy will set you back
$18.43.
Another used copy,
this one in very good condition and has had the disc professionally
refurbished, this also comes with manual, artwork and original case, this copy
can be picked up $21.85. there are another couple of copies slightly cheaper
than this and while in similar condition they do not confirm if they are
complete copies.
For just a few
dollars more you can pick up a like new copy of the game, this copy however
does not state if the original front and back covers for the game are included,
this copy comes with free shipping for $24. From here the remaining used copies
continue to climb in price up to over $40.
At the time of
writing this there are currently three new copies of the game on the market, if
you are in the market for one of these prices start at $62.50, this copy ships
with Amazon so comes with free shipping, as does the second new copy, this
however is priced at $74.99. The final new copy on the market will cost you a
hefty $102.69.
Written by
P J Gibbon
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