Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals (N64)
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| This article is about the Nintendo 64 game. For the PlayStation game, see Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals (PS). |
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トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズメタルス64
(Transformers: Beast Wars Metals 64) | |||||||
| Developers | Takara, Locomotive, GenAzea | ||||||
| Publishers | Takara (JP) BAM! Entertainment (NA) | ||||||
| Platform | Nintendo 64 | ||||||
| Release date | October 1, 1999 (JP) July 12, 2000 (NA) | ||||||
| Rating | ESRB: T | ||||||
| Credits | |||||||
Transformers Beast Wars: Transmetals is a Nintendo 64 video game, released in 1999 in Japan and 2000 in North America. It and its PlayStation counterpart share a primary theme—characters from the second season of the Beast Wars television series duking it out in one-on-one combat—but the games differ in their stories, gameplay styles, character selections, and bonus features.
Plot
With their capture of Predacon commander Megatron, the Maximals are led to believe the Beast Wars have finally come to an end. As they make their way back to Cybertron via an Autobot shuttle, the captive Megatron manages to send a message through transwarp back to his past self earlier in the conflict, warning him of his own defeat. As a result of the interference, history has already begun to change, with some Maximals and Predacons gaining powerful new Transmetal forms. And as the timeline continues to diverge, it remains to be seen how the future will be rewritten...
Endings
While the PlayStation game has a very vague ending for either faction that generally upholds the status quo, the Nintendo 64 game features individualized text stories for each character.
Maximals
- Optimus Primal: Primal's leadership skills eventually result in the destruction of the Predacons and the capture of Megatron. The Maximals attach Megatron to the exterior of an Autobot shuttle and fly back to Cybertron. Little do they know that Megatron's arm has gotten free of his bonds and he's about to send a message back to himself in the past... (Whoa, déjà vu!)
- Rattrap: Rattrap's resourcefulness eventually results in the complete destruction of Megatron. Back on Cybertron, he's enjoying his return home by hopping between all the local restaurants and pubs, saying, "We're all gonna di-...dine!"
- Cheetor: When Optimus is damaged, an enraged Cheetor charges into battle and swings the tide in the Maximals' favor. With the war over, Primal remarks that Cheetor showed the makings of a great leader; the kid jokes that leadership is Optimus's department, but who knows? Maybe in another universe...
- Airazor/Tigatron: While they play critical roles in the victory, Tigatron feels his true place is on Earth; Airazor, in love with him, decides to stay there as well. They live on Earth for many centuries, watching the war damage heal, and wondering about their comrades and if Maximal and Predacon could ever live in peace. They think that someday, they might go to Cybertron as visitors from a distant world almost forgotten...
- Blackarachnia (sorta): Originally a Predacon, Silverbolt convinces Blackarachnia to switch sides; her defection brings down Megatron and ensures victory! However, on peacetime Cybertron, she begins to wonder what it'd be like if she'd stayed a villain, and starts working as a double agent for both the Tripredacus Council and the Maximals, loyal to neither faction.
Predacons
- Megatron: Megatron successfully destroys all of the Maximals. After achieving this, he enters the Ark and destroys the legendary Autobot leader Optimus Prime, ensuring a definitive victory for the Decepticons. However, in 2005, the horrible transformer Unicron attacks Cybertron. With the Matrix of Leadership destroyed with Prime, can anything stop Unicron?
- Tarantulas: Turning on both sides, Tarantulas batters everyone in pursuit of what he needs to escape Earth. He then leaves the Beast Wars, returns to his time, and reports to the Tripredacus Council about the Ark's discovery. Now promoted, Tarantulas is in command of a hundred transwarp battle cruisers heading for Earth: "If the Beast Wars aren't over yet, they will be soon! Ha ha ha hee hee hee hee!!"
- Waspinator: Waspinator finally snaps, deciding he isn't going to take it anymore, and beats up every single Transformer. He then quits the Predacons and the Beast Wars, and after both sides depart Earth, he remains as the benevolent god of a tribe of protohumans. "Waspinator happy now!"
- Terrorsaur: Terrorsaur bludgeons both sides into submission, obliterating the Maximals and finally dethroning Megatron! Unfortunately, Terrorsaur is so busy enjoying being a tyrant that he fails to devise a plan to leave Earth, and the whole Predacon force is frozen alive in the Ice Age! Perhaps a hundred thousand years will teach Terrorsaur a thing or two about leadership!
- Ravage: Ravage betrays Megatron, seizes the Ark, and begins cloning all the dormant Decepticons into new forms. Now he plans to take this army back to future Cybertron: it's time for the Decepticons to conquer time itself!
- Starscream: After achieving success in battle, Starscream enters the Ark, where his original body rests in stasis lock. Starscream then infuses himself with the power of his old body, the same way the Predacon commander Megatron and Optimus Primal increased their power. The result is incredible, and the revived Starscream heads back to Cybertron...
Characters
| Maximals | Predacons |
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* Playable only in the North American release.
** Playable only in the Japanese release; non playable boss in all regions.
Secret characters
The North American release of Transmetals includes a handful of secret playable characters, each of which is a palette-swapped variant of an existing character with their own unique voice lines and arcade ending. Each hidden character requires a variation on the same code: Highlight the character they are based on at the character select screen and press Z and A. Then move left or right to cycle through their alternate color palettes until you reach the secret character. Using this method, Cheetor can be highlighted to unlock Tigatron and Ravage, Tarantulas to unlock Blackarachnia, and Waspinator to unlock Starscream.
In the Japanese version, Megatron X can be unlocked as a playable character by inserting Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle into the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak. As the game does not include any save functionality, Megatron X does not stay unlocked and requires the Game Boy Color game's presence to remain accessible.
Gameplay
Summon all the courage you require
Transmetals is a 1-on-1 3D fighting game. Battles consist of two opponents in an open arena attacking one another, with the match ending when either character's stamina is depleted or time runs out. The characters are able to switch between beast mode, vehicle mode, and robot mode during battle, each of which has unique attacks and abilities. Robot mode is the most offense-based of the three, able to use hand-to-hand attacks when close to an opponent, along with a variety of projectile attacks at longer range. These include the basic shot, which can be fired while moving and jumping; the deluxe shot, which fires missiles and bombs that home in on vehicle modes; and the mega shot, which can instantly knock down an opponent at the cost of a long charge time. All three attacks can be charged to a second or third level, making them more powerful, though this charge can be interrupted if hit by enemy fire. In the case of the Mega Shot, charging to level 3 will make the attack unblockable and unavoidable. Spending too much time in robot mode will gradually cause the Energon Resistance Gauge to drain; when it fully empties, the player will suffer an energon radiation surge, leaving them unable to attack or defend. In beast mode, the Energon Resistance Gauge will gradually replenish, though offensive ability in this mode varies by character. Vehicle modes are unaffected by the E.R.G. and move much faster, making it easier to evade enemy fire, but their beam and projectile attacks are weak and inaccurate. All three modes can also use a "Transmetal Attack", a powerful explosion that can nullify enemy attacks, though some of the character's stamina is drained with each use. There are eight stages to battle on, one of which is exclusive to the final battle of Arcade Mode, but the differences between them are purely aesthetic; regardless of which one you choose, you'll still be fighting on the same flat, unobstructed terrain.
The game features a single-player Arcade Mode, in which the player must defeat a series of seven opponents. After defeating the last character, the player is placed into a bonus battle against "Megatron X", a winged clone of Megatron made from crystalized energon. While all other battles will allow the player to retry as many times as they want, the player only has one chance to defeat Megatron X, who is automatically fought at the game's hardest difficulty regardless of the current difficulty setting. Whether they win or lose, the player is presented with their character's ending at the battle's conclusion. Other battle modes also support 1-2 players, including a standard Vs. Mode; Team Battle Mode, a tag team match in which each player selects a team of four characters and switches between them when each one is defeated; and Kids Mode, a goofy bonus mode in which all characters have squished models and higher pitched voices. How...adorable?
Transmetals also features a handful of mini-games. "Escape Race 100" and its longer variant "Escape Race 200" has players race to press all the buttons as rapidly as possible to escape approaching explosions and reach the finish before their opponent. "Sunset Showdown" is a quick draw minigame in which players must be the first to press a button and fire their weapon when a prompt appears; a second variant, "Sunrise Showdown", adds a second command to cock the gun that must be performed after the prompt but before firing. Finally, "Disc Hunter" sees players compete to retrieve the most silver and golden discs that appear on the battlefield before time runs out. The game also includes a "Toys" mode that allows players to view each character's profile, model, and animations; no profile information is included for the secret characters.
Notes
Regional differences
- In the English version of the game, both player combatants are much more limited in terms of how far the characters can move away from each other compared to the original Japanese release. Though this keeps the players' combatants in closer and clearer view, the gameplay mechanics are severely limited as a result.
- In the Japanese version, each character only had two standard color palettes to choose from, along with a third that could be unlocked. In the English version, all three palettes were available from the start, along with an additional fourth palette. There are, however, a few exceptions to this:
- Tarantulas and Waspinator did not receive any additional colors, with the hidden Blackarachnia and Starscream characters instead acting as their respective fourth palettes.
- Cheetor actually lost his standard 2P colors, retaining only his unlockable color scheme, in order to leave two slots open for both Tigatron and Ravage.
- Megatron only has three color palettes, rather than four like the other characters. Given the previous information, it can be assumed Megatron's fourth palette was meant to be Megatron X, but no known way exists to unlock him in the English version.
Continuity notes
- The story begins (and ends, in Primal's case) with Megatron strapped to the top of an Autobot shuttle as the Maximals head back to Cybertron, just as in "Nemesis Part 2".
- Cheetor's ending alludes to a potential universe where he leads the Maximals, which is exactly what happens in the original timeline during the events of Beast Machines.
- Megatron's ending sees him succeed in his plan to kill Optimus Prime, as he attempted to do in "The Agenda (Part III)".
- Waspinator quitting the Predacons in his ending and becoming the protohumans' new god figure when the others leave is a repeat of the events of "Nemesis Part 2".
- Starscream's ending features him absorbing the power of his original body to power himself up, the same way Optimus Primal and Megatron did with Optimus Prime and the original Megatron in "Optimal Situation" and "Master Blaster".
Errors
- The existence of the game's Energon Resistance Gauge seems questionable, as the episode "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)" stated that the quantum surge that created the Transmetals also either destroyed or stabilized the surrounding energon deposits, meaning it should no longer be affecting the Maximals or Predacons. Perhaps we can chalk it up to another side-effect of Megatron's temporal meddling?
- One of Rattrap's alternate color schemes in the English version is an attempt to recreate his original organic beast mode using his Transmetal character model. This mostly works, but means the robot mode features the rat head as both its shoulder panels and chest.
- The game's English manual claims the Autobots and Decepticons were in stasis for four billion years and that the Maximals and Predacons came from thousands of years after the Great War, rather than the four million and hundreds respectfully depicted in the cartoon itself.
Transformers references
- Megatron's ending refers to Unicron's attack on Cybertron in 2005, as depicted in The Transformers: The Movie and countless other stories.
- Starscream's appearance is a re-skin of Waspinator in his pre-Transmetal colors, in reference to the time the Seeker possessed the poor Predacon in "Possession".
Trivia
- In Team Battle Mode, characters will say different lines on the select screen if the player selects a team of all Maximals or all Predacons.
- Silverbolt is mentioned in passing during Blackarachnia's ending, but does not otherwise appear.
- In North America, Transmetals was initially exclusive to Blockbuster video rental stores, and wasn't released to general retail until a few months later. As a result, cartridges today are a little more rare than many other N64 games and fetch a decent price on the collector's market, though it doesn't go for nearly as much as other Blockbuster exclusives like Stunt Racer 64 and ClayFighter: Sculptor's Cut.
