Thursday, December 11, 2014

TRANSFORMERS: Battle Tactics game to land on mobile soon

Transformers is one of the most beloved toy franchises in the world and of all time, so it isn't surprising that owner Hasbro would want to bring it to the growing mobile gaming industry as well. Teaming up with game developers ngmoco, the two will be bringing TRANSFORMERS: Battle Tactics to Android, and iOS, in 2015. But if you're thinking of an action packed game similar to Transformer titles on the PC and consoles, better think again.

As the name implies, this game is more about strategic thinking than button mashing. In fact, the game's description makes "strategy" the unequivocal theme of the game:

TRANSFORMERS: Battle Tactics is the exciting turn-based strategy game where players collect and assemble teams of iconic TRANSFORMERS characters and battle in strategic combat experiences with other fans in real-time.

As for who those iconic characters are, the game seems to mostly follow the Generation 1 (G1) roster, which includes the classic Optimus Prime and Megatron, though the list seems to extends a bit further down the timeline. For example, Arcee, the first female Transformer, is there. Superion is also depicted, which could hint that combiners are also present, though we shouldn't probably hold our breaths that we'd actually be able to combine Transformers into one, huge, badass robot.

Graphics wise, TRANSFORMERS: Battle Tactics might be a bit of a downer to hardcore fans. You aren't getting the robots in all their glory but are instead left with chibi (small) depictions. In fact, the style is reminiscent of Angry Birds Transformers even. The exact gameplay mechanics are also rather vague at this point, but fans will most likely keep an eye out for this one, even if just to see how it pans out in the end. The game will be free to play, with IAPs of course, and there are elements of online PvP.