'Transformers' is challenging, fun

The game is based on an old television series.
By JUSTIN HOEGER
SACRAMENTO BEE
The basic story of "Transformers" will be familiar to anyone who grew up in the 1980s or follows the revamped series. Two warring factions of a robotic race, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, have ended up on Earth after millennia of fruitless struggle on their home planet of Cybertron.
The Decepticons' leader, Megatron, has constructed an army of Decepticlones, mass-produced fighting robots that far outnumber the Autobots, and has gained the upper hand. On the brink of defeat, the Autobots' chief, Optimus Prime, receives a distress call from the long-lost Mini-Cons, tiny Transformers that impart special powers to the larger ones and crash-landed on Earth ages ago.
Megatron and Prime both lead their forces to Earth to begin searching for the little robots. There are three Autobots to control -- Optimus Prime, the biggest and strongest; Red Alert, an armored tactical expert; and Hot Shot, a small but speedy machine. All three naturally transform into vehicles at will -- Prime's a fire truck, Red Alert an SUV and Hot Shot a sports car.
Of course, the Decepticons can do so, too. Megatron becomes a tank, changed from the original version's gun; his lieutenant Starscream is a jet fighter and Cyclonus is a helicopter.
The Mini-Cons
The key to the Autobots' war effort is the Mini-Cons, because they are powerful little things. Each one Prime or his cohorts collect grants a new ability. Up to four can be attached at once to each hero, and each takes a certain amount of capacity to use, so no one Autobot can deck itself out with all the most powerful Mini-Cons.
The Mini-Cons' gifts are varied. Some enhance an Autobot's weaponry, boosting its standard blaster or adding missiles or grenades. Others provide extra protection, either passively or by an energy shield. Still others increase abilities, allowing higher jumps and so forth.
They grant a lot of firepower, and it's all needed. The Decepticlones are legion, not very smart, but pretty tough. Heavier models can be very tough to kill and, when coupled with a pack of the weaker ones, can pose a real threat.
The pure Decepticons act as level bosses, and they're tough to beat. It's a challenging game, but the action is fun and intense without being too frustrating, and level checkpoints are plentiful.
Weaknesses
Now the bad parts. The control is pretty clunky, which perhaps is to be expected when one is controlling a 20-foot-tall robot, but still a bit too imprecise, especially when changing direction or jumping.
Also, while the Autobots can indeed transform and roll out, there's often not much reason to do so. Their vehicle forms are faster than their robot shapes, but they can't fire weapons, jump or climb steep hills. They're handy for jumping over ravines and covering flat stretches of terrain, but not for much else. It would have been nice, too, if there was more emphasis on transforming, especially since the Decepticons' alternate forms are loaded with devastating weaponry.
Still, these are fairly minor things. There are a lot of Mini-Cons to find and use, and hundreds of combinations to set up. The levels are littered with Data-Cons that unlock special features. "Transformers" also looks very good, with crisp, colorful visuals and some impressive explosion and light effects, plus large and highly detailed environments.
There may not be more here than meets the eye, but what's there is pretty good stuff.
X"Transformers," by Atari for Sony PlayStation 2, is rated T for teens.