Just got this from seibertron.com and it's a doozy. At the moment it appears that this game is cancelled for release outside of Japan so that means imports only. This doesn't make much sense since information released about the game states that the bulk of the audio was recorded in english. If I find out anything else I'll pass it along.

*seething with hatred*


I know why. It's been done before with other games.



The live action movie. The rights...and the problems that causes when something published for America is to be released in America, when the rights for G1 characters are going through the infamous hollywood 'custody battle'.

I hate Hollywood. I hate having to import things. I hate not being able to find a mod-chip that works with my PS2. I hate not having LWC already! RAAAAARGH!

I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS GAME VERY BADLY! I WILL KILL! I WANT BLOOD! And a quarter pounder, i'm hungry. VENGEANCE! RIOTS! CHAOS! RAAAARGH!

I'm hoping that this will be changed because the game hasn't even been released in Japan yet for crying out loud. The audio on it is almost totally in English, and the upcoming Transformers Armada game which is scheduled for the fall will surely later see release in Japan.

Armada is also airing now in Japan by the way and the title there is Transformers: Micron Legend.

the armada game will more than likely come out in the US. It's a struggle for the G1 characters that I expect to be the culprit.

Oh the Armada game is definitely coming out in the US it was unveiled at E3, and the current waves of Armada figures have promotional ads for it in the back of the Armada minicomics that come packaged with them. I think the release is supposed to be in September for the Transformers Armada game.

Well, I have the game, Import. The thing is so incredibly easy to understand.


THE ENTIRE GAME IS IN ENGLISH!


It's the manual that's japanese. I can't figure out the attacks and how to shoot with the blasters.

Other than that, this game is on par with DBZ Budokai 1 for the PS2 - only, this game just kicks ass that much more because it's transformers - Gen. 1 transformers at that.

The intro movie had me glued to the screen. Freakin' awesome. The voiceovers are all english, and everybody, though the voice casting was from another planet, tried to make similar voices. Jazz and Wheeljack are just fine in my book. The only thing that kinda bugs me so far is Megatron and Optimus Voice overs. Megatron sounds like Recoome (from Dragonball Z), with a slightly higher pitch to his voice. Almost as if they are planning on recycling his voice for use with Galvatron, which may be acceptable later on (just got the game an hour ago). Optimus is none other than the same guy who does the voice of Adrienne Farenheights Tepes, aka ALUCARD, in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It's recognizable, but at least they got him instead of... well, let's just say there's a big list of no-no's for japanese 'american speaking' vo actors.

Soundwave is awesome, and he and Prime have synthesized add ons to their voices.


The game is narrated along the way, much like an old 'you will know when it is time to turn the page, when you hear the chime' vinyl record read-a-long-storybook.


(YES, I'M OLD. BITE ME)

In that sense, it's aimed for the kiddies, like I said, much like BK1. The action is a bit awkward. Much like Gundam: Journey to Jaburo. It's third person, and you control whichever autobot or decepticon you wish (as you unlock them when story progresses). Hitting left on the left stick or d-pad makes you rotate left, same for right.
Hitting up makes you run forward, depending on how hard you press, and back makes you back up. Square transforms (you can do this pretty much at anytime), and X jumps, while O and Triangle are reserved to kick and punch.

I played as Optimus, and though I couldn't figure out how the hell to shoot the blaster, Jazz and Wheeljack were firing away nicely, making me thing A-I'm and idiot somehow, and B- you can do this at will...if you know how.

Combat is oldschool... plain ol' beat them up, kick them down, step on their face, and watch your back while doin' it.

There are a few specialties to add to this. There's an EP meter, a special move bar if you will. Somewhere in the manual, special attacks are listed - i can't figure them for the life o' me. However, I was able to dish out punishment with Optimus laser axe, and was able to transform, and have the trailer open up with a big ol' cannon inside that blasted everything in my path (as well as eat up the EP bar). I was also able to go slo mo matrix-ball-Z on enemy asses. It seems that if you are in close proximity to an enemy, and hit the right button combo, you can go into a sequence where your character (while pressing attack buttons repeatedly), will, in slomo, kick the shizznit out of the enemy, finishing off with a super punch or kick that sends the enemy flying away from you, finishing off with a nice pose of your character.

I'm only on stage 3, and it's pretty freakin' good so far.
I heard rumors of ATLAS possibly picking up the TF game title, and if that happens, we'll all be a bit happier. Though, if you decide to import it, know that it's already in english, and you can change the text at anytime in the options menu, from English to Japanese.

Doing so also changes robo's names...IE: CONVOY turns into OPTIMUS PRIME.

Freakin' awesome. Will update with tons and tons of screenies.

Cool. Cool. And very cool. So what you were saying about Atlas gives some hope for a US release? I know there are supposed to be some mission where you drive through a minefield. I need to import this game... bad. Thanks for the update and info raijin!

Heh, the minefeild for both the Decepto's and AutoB's is mission 3.


I can't pass it.


It's incredibly haaaaard, but incredibly fun to try with starscream. I got more than halfway through it in less than 8 seconds, yet near the end, I brushed up against on mine, that blew me back into another mine, into another mine, into another mine, until I made it back to the start point, nearly dead...and then got shot once by an autobot blaster, and died.


I just downloaded the only faq for this at gamefaqs. It has the basic moves if anyone's interested in who can do what.

Somebody also made a review a while back, i think on gamespot, that said all robo's were the same size.

While the sizes of the robo's are not exact (Optimus does not tower 3 times over bumblebee, etc) , they are pretty darn close, and worked well because this is a fighting game, and to fight, robos need to reach each other.
So in other words, Optimus and Megatron are both about ...er... in terms of inches on screen, 2 inches taller than the rest. Oh, since I can rip the sound from my computer, I can make small downloadable wav files of each characters voiceover. I'll include a pic of that scene too, so you folks can get a feel for it.


There is no multiplayer mode as far as I can tell, and there's no button config option. In fact, the first thing that happens when you go to the options menu, is you get a screen telling you to load a game from the memory card.

Only if you say no, you get to the options menu. Basically, you can set the BGM volume, and can also change the text in narration, (and everywhere else) to english.

The translation is done extremely well. You can tell this thing was definitely planned for US release. All the VO's are in english only...


I'll look up the site that had the TF/Atlas news. I'm not sure if I said it right before, i'll have to check.


Oh yeah, the official name of the game in English, is Transformers: Call of the Future.



PS- Rodimus Prime, and Galvatron, a long with other movie characters are in it. (Cup, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Blur, Galvatron, his flying henchmen without the mustache, and others I no longer remember names to)

Some of the rentabot enemies in this game are familiar faces... I don't remember the names of these guys anymore, and I hates myself for getting rusty, but the autobot ambulance guy is one rentabot (enemies that appear all the time, as in oldschool beat em up games), and that red telescopic bot with the light english accent is the other.

For the Decepto's, two jets are the rentabots. A blue and yellow one, and the other is red and gray.

The ambulance would be Ratchet. The microscope is Perceptor. The Decepticon jets you mention are Dirge and Thrust repsctively. Screens I've seen in the past show not only Movie and Season 3 characters but also characters from Season four and the Japanese Headmasters series.

Galvatron's lieutenant with the mustache is Scourge and the goons that look like him are the Sweeps. Galvie's other lieutenant is Cyclonus.

I remember I had a scourge transformer or the other guy as a toy. Does the game follow any of the episodes?

I think it's safer to say that it's loosely based on the G1 timeline as opposed to actually follows them.

The other PS2 TF game which is looking downright badass is due for release in May.