Happy Meals [McDonalds, via Go Nintendo]

There I am chatting with him about the upcoming Lego: Batman game and suggesting that a Lego: Transformers game would be fun. He asks me, essentially, for an on-the-spot verbal pitch. As chronicled on my Multiplayer blog, I say

I said, you’d take advantage of the wide cast of Transformers characters and put them in the format started by “Lego: Star Wars.” There are plenty of Transformers for gamers to control and swap, certainly more characters in the pantheon than there were for “Lego: Indiana Jones.”

I said TT coul have all sorts of fun letting the characters transform to get through the levels. You have the existing good mix of character and vehicle stuff in the Lego games, so there’s a blueprint there.

“Sounds like you just want a good Transformers game,” Smith replied

I tried more. He didn't bite. Where did I go wrong? Bad concept?

How I Failed To Successfully Pitch ‘Lego: Transformers - The Game’ [MTV Multiplayer blog] [Pic]

Lego [have] already replaced them with an anonymous genocidal, occultist, trenchcoat-wearing master-race.

World Exclusive!! GameCity to show the lightsaber in action! Travellers Tales and LucasArts let the public play The Force!

11th October 2007. Feel and Play The Force at GameCity (www.gamecity.org). Visitors to the world's most exciting game festival are to be the first in the world get their hands on the Wii® lightsaber, in LucasArts' Lego® Star Wars™: The Complete Saga re-mastered and shown in glorious HD.

Since the first film's debut 30 years ago, fans have longed for the day when they could fight their own lightsaber duels. Now, thanks to the Wii's motion-sensitive controller, The Complete Saga will finally make that fantasy a reality, allowing players to battle with thrusts and slices of the Remote. GameCity is thrilled to give gamers a chance to be the first in the world to see and try the lightsaber first-hand in a worldwide exclusive premier of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for Wii.

This global premier is part of GameCity's Play The Force - a celebration of the rich heritage that games share with the Star Wars phenomenon. That legacy - thirty years, six films, and billions of dollars - is enormous, and throughout those decades games have been an integral part of the Star Wars universe. More than 120 of them have tried - with varying degrees of success - to bring the different elements of Lucas's world to life.

And so, 26th October is Star Wars day at GameCity. The festival is thrilled to be able to welcome Jonathan Smith, of developer Travellers Tales and visionary behind the Lego Star Wars phenomenon, which has brought all six films to life with the tiny, clunky charisma only Lego can bring. Presenting the complete saga of the games' development, and explaining the secret behind their prodigious success, this session will be an exceptional opportunity to see behind the scenes of a game that delighted critics and consumers alike.

Please note: this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - limited tickets are available. Go online and buy your tickets NOW - once they're sold there won't be anymore! www.gamecity.org

Following on from Smith's symposium is a session that gets to the heart of the question that all those not-so-stellar Star Wars games raise: just why is it so hard to get it right? 'What Makes A Brilliant Star Wars Game' brings together gaming experts and Star Wars specialists to hammer out the formula for the perfect Star Wars game. Is it the lightsabers? Is it the music? Is it the X-wings? Join Wonderland's Alice Taylor, and sci-fi expert Jonathan Hamblin to find out.

30 years on from the release of the original film, science - the science behind games, at least - has caught up with science fiction. GameCity is proud to showcase 'Euphoria', Natural Motion's on-the-fly dynamic motion synthesis engine which dynamically generates the movements of your character in-game. Rather than being limited by animations prepared in advance by the game's designers, Euphoria means that no two jumps, no two punches, no two KOs need ever be the same again. Already showcased to great effect in the upcoming Indiana Jones game, Euphoria will also play a key part in the new Star Wars extravaganza. Come along and see how your actions will shape the games of the future.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - 12pm, 26th October. Broadway Cinema and Media Centre
What Makes A Brilliant Star Wars Game? - 1pm, 26th October, Broadway Cinema and Media Centre
Euphoria: Physics of the Force - 2pm, 26th October, Broadway Cinema and Media Centre

By this point you know about the basics. Transformers is a free-roaming mission based game which lets you choose between playing a heroic Autobot or evil Decepticon as both sides vie for control of the legendry Allspark, the source of all Transformer life. Rather than painstakingly explore every facet of the game, I decided to focus on the central theme. Good versus bad...right versus wrong.

What Transformers Does Right

Voices: Even the voices that aren't Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, the original Optimus and Megatron, are done rather well. Shia in particular sounds really into his role, unlike certain video game voiceover actors I could mention (Yes you Tobey), which leads me to...

Human Characters: Rather than going with the standard method of building a character model and painting on a face to represent the movie actors, TT actually created full models for the humans, giving them a slightly exaggerated look at feel that really helps them mesh with the action. It really is an example of how real-world characters should be done in games.

Scale: Travellers Tales has done a pretty amazing job of making you feel like you are a huge freaking robot in a world full of squishy humans. I was also impressed by the accuracy in depicting the carious bots' sizes in relation to each other, though I am sure that is more a product of the movie character specs.

Fan Service: Playing through the Autobot storyline I ran into a character that isn't featured in the film but is probably one of the most menacing characters from the original comic book and cartoon series, completely re-imagined to fit with the design aesthetic. Not going to mention any names, but fans will be in for quite a shock when they see who it is. There could very well be more lurking in there for all I know. Add to that the unlockable concept arts, trailers, and G1 character models and you've almost got to buy this is you're a fan...well, a rabid Transformers fan like myself.

What Transformers Does Wrong

Graphics: While it looks pretty enough in screenshots, playing through the game on the 360 I can't shake the feeling that all of the bloom and lighting effects are covering up some less than stellar graphics.

Encounter Zones: As you roam about the map you enter encounters, some of which are surrounded by green circles that you cannot step outside of for fear of failing the mission. Your enemies can certainly be knocked out of it though, giving you plenty of time to stand around looking bloomy while waiting for them to get back.

Invisible Walls: The game is NOT a free-roaming game if you have invisible walls in it, period. Put the whole thing in an impassable canyon if you'd like, but no stupid invisible walls. It's Optimus Prime, not Optimus Mime.

Driving: A good driving game gives you the sensation of actually gripping the road as you turn the wheel. Transformers, for the most part, does not. On top of that, cars get knocked away from you far too easily. Bumblebee should not be able to knock a bus off the road without shoulder-checking it.

Missions: Some of the missions are just plain corny. In one of the Autobot missions I had to travel from waypoint to waypoint, saving Jazz from getting his ass kicked. I'd show up, there'd be a cutscene of ass-kicked Jazz, I'd tell him to run for it and take care of the bad guys. Two miles down the road he's getting his ass handed to him again. Either Jazz sucks, which I refuse to believe, or this wasn't planned all that well.

Camera: See those trees? You're in there somewhere. So is the robot trying to kill you. Pretty snazzy, huh? Even in the open streets the camera isn't all that responsive, making for some really unfortunate deaths on y part.

Checkpoints: There are no checkpoints, despite the fact that missions themselves use a waypoint system that would have been perfect for it. I don't like failing at the last moment during a fifteen minute mission and having to start back over.

Transforming: This is going to sound extremely nitpicky, but why can't I transform into vehicle mode in mid-air? I can change to robot in mid-air, why not the other way around? I don't want to live in a world where I can't jump off the top of the building and turn into a helicopter halfway down.

Til All Are One

So after a quick tallying we have four good things versus eight bad things. Not really a good balance. Even figuring the bonus 20% for just having the name Transformers on the cover and you've still got something just north of completely mediocre. If you're really curious about the game, try giving it a rent, or at least pick it up somewhere used where you can return it just in case. I'd mention that it is a must-have item for rabid fans, but we've already bought it.

According to CVG, the Dark Knight will be featured in his own blocky, kid friendly detective adventure with development already underway.

Sadly, no screens or further details exist, but with LEGO Star Wars II on the cusp of release, anything more than this unofficial announcement might just cause adult children—like yours truly—to uncontrollably issue a release of their own... in their pants.

Holy LEGO Batman! [CVG]