Games: Transformers: Devastation (Multi)
By: Activision
FORGET the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the 10 year-old me hot-footed it from church to snag Optimus Prime with my sweet Confirmation lucre.
The original cartoon guaranteed Wacaday the rapt attention of young boys throughout the land, which in turn begat some of the decade's best toys, where, after some ham-fisted pulls and twists, suspiciously segmented vehicles became fat robots with windshield chests, ready to duke it out for spoilt brat pocket money.
Of course, the franchise has recently been smacked around by Michael Bay, which makes it all the sweeter that the latest console effort harks back to the halcyon first generation toy-line for its kicks.
Developed by the Japanese masters of the fighting form, Platinum, Devastation riffs on their tried and tested Bayonetta battle model, but with the added bonus of Optimus, Bumblebee and the gang locking wingnuts with the Decepticons in a city-wide battle royale.
With a CV dripping in cult classics, Platinum specialise in high-octane action, and the gameplay here apes their patented formula, with robots duking it out in close-quarters and transforming into vehicles to traverse the retina-searing environments. And in a staggeringly smart move, Devastation ignores the god-awful movies and focuses purely on the classic cartoon, back when Shia LaBeouf was a mistake waiting to happen.
With none of the needless padding that typifies most releases these days, Devastation respects your free time. Sure, it's done and dusted in around six hours, but with plenty of extra challenges beefing up replay value, you'll return to suckle at its chunky, candy-coloured nostalgia teats time and again. The chunky, cel-shaded visuals are reminiscent of the best Dreamcast titles and a far cry from today's high-res fodder, but it all looks exactly how you thought the cartoon did when you were ten. Better still, many of the ageing voice cast have been snagged for their talents (presumably during rare lucid moments), though advancing years have added a touch of Decepti-convalescence to the result. Musically, it's a cheesy blast of rock riffs that conjure up fond/awful memories of The Touch from the wonderful '86 animated movie. While rough around the edges, the glamour boys of late 80s toydom are well served in this thoroughly entertaining love letter to long-suffering fans, who may even shed a tear on hearing that iconic TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE transforming sound effect. Yes, that's how it's spelt. For Devastation's brief six hours I was back clutching Optimus in 1987, wearing a pink leather tie and Club 1880 chinos. I'm so past my Prime.
