Hasbro Wants Old Transformers Games To Return, But Activision Lost Them

soyagi@yiffit.net to Games@lemmy.world – 226 points – Hasbro Wants Old Transformers Games To Return, But Activision Lost Them
kotaku.com

“Sadly, apparently Activision’s not sure what hard drives they’re on in their building,” Hasbro told TFW2005. “When a company eats a company that eats a company things get lost, and that’s very frustrating.”

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Activision “lost” them until the right sized bribe shows up in Bobby’s bank account.

Edit: spelling

They had crash’s source code but not Spyro.

Activision is just a terrible company to ask to archive data.

Not nearly on the same level, but reminds me of the Apollo 11 missing tapes. Historical data that’s just lost out of negligence. Chances are pirates have saved these games somewhere deep in the cockles of the intranets. Pirates are really just digital archivists, preserving information for future generations.

I don't think the games themselves missing is the problem, it's probably the source code they want

Unfortunately, that's a common thing in the gaming industry. Another example are the PS1 Final Fantasy games, they are stuck with those low res backgrounds and FMVs because Square Enix lost the original assets.

Were there any good, worthwhile transformers games released, for any console, ever? I can't think of a single one

War for Cybertron
Fall of Cybertron

Some of the best Transformers media that exists. They are an absolute blast to play through with a fantastic story.

The part on Fall of Cybertron when you can repeatedly flatten Megatron with a gigantic iron fist was super satisfying.

Agreed. And the big Trypticon reveal. And whatever treachery Starscream and SoundBlaster were clumsily plotting.

I recall every boss fight being well worth the price of admission.

I tried playing War for Cybertron and the single player campaign did not do it for me. Good art for its day, but the gameplay was generic 3rd person shooter but with extremely stingy ammo rationing and the transforming mechanic that felt like an afterthought.

All fair points. For me, the boss battle over-acting, Shakespearian drama, and wild scale forgave the many middling bits in between.

I had one for the PS2, if memory serves, that sucked balls so hard it is a clear contender for Worst Game I’ve ever played (and I’ve been playing for over 40 years, now…)

I had blocked that game from my memory.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers:_The_Game

It. Was. So. Bad.

Easily makes the list of the top five worst games I've ever played.

I have to admit I enjoyed throwing movie Ironhide's weight around.

But the goofy checkpoint system was just awful. The whole game was like one exceedingly long escort the NPC quest.

Edit: And for contrast: the other Transformers PS2 game is fantastic: Transformers: Armada So it's not as if they couldn't have done better.

The PS2 Transformers Armada game is fantastic. Driving around in the (for the time) open world is a joy. The gunfights are interesting and tactical. The boss flights are over the top cinematic. And the minicons add brokenly fun abilities.

War for Cybertron I and II are worthy follow-ups with better acting and story, and even more fantastic boss fights. Vehicle modes remain fun. The core shooter is solid. Only points docked in my book is the lack of minicons, and dull color pallette.

And of course, the very first game is downright almost playable if you happen to be very young and lack access to hobbies or literally any other game.

A remake of the first game would be so amazing.

I agree. I've always thought that giant hippo, in particular, didn't get enough time in the original game.

Oh. I thought they were referring to the PC games here? Transformers 1: The Game?

Sorry - I should have put a sarcasm tag. I was intentionally misunderstanding so I could mention that goofy Hippo.