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 5^th 1997 release date, Europe and Japan would have to wait until the following March for the games release. Europe received the game on the 19^th of March 1998, while Japan got it a week later on the 26^th, 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 

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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