Transformers: Human Alliance (Arcade)

When I set out to create this blog I really thought I'd share my opinions and stories of games from my home collection, however here I find myself writing about another arcade game.

If you know me well, or even look at the side bar at some of my other blogs, you should be able to tell I'm a big Transformers fan. However I'm not a fan of the Michael Bay live action movies. I've seen each of the movies once, and I really don't care to watch them again. However one good thing the live action movies brought us what the Transformers: Human Alliance arcade game.

Up until now, Transformers has had mixed success when it comes to video games. The first TF game released for the Nintendo Famicom leaves a lot to be desired. Even the follow up Headmasters game on the Famicom Disk System really isn't that great either. There was a slick looking G1 style game released for the Playstation 2, but it never saw release outside of Japan. The Armada PS2 game was the first TF game that seemed to go over well with the masses. Eventually the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games on the last gen hardware were hits with gamers and TF fans alike. While I never played much of them myself for different reasons, I do agree that those are some of the best TF games to date.

Now enter the Human Alliance arcade game. Every time I have ran across this game in an arcade it's the usual Bumblebee housing. Once you are sat down inside you are treated to a nice large chromed out double handle gun. In the middle of the console so to speak is a large illuminated Autobot symbol.

If you sit there long enough you can watch a little intro scene along with some gameplay. I was able to capture the game play scene when Sideswipe shows up. The game plays like many of the other sit down shooters. Player one commands a female Human Alliance officer and player two commands a civilian caught in the crossfire who is just trying to help. You aim your on screen reticule at the enemy Decepticons, plowing them down whether they are in robot or alt mode. All of the characters are based on the Michael Bay movies with some new design elements worked in. At times the screen can get crowded and you'll take some cheap hits, but it doesn't seem to take too much off your life bar. Occasionally you'll have close up moments where green targets pop up and give you a limited amount of time to shoot them before you'll take damage. The majority of the boss fighters go this way. Sounds easy, but as you progress in the game it does seem that the difficulty starts to increase as well.

To date I haven't beaten this game, but have advanced a decent way through. I find it to be a lot of fun, thanks in part to Sega's involvement in the game. Transformers: Human Alliance doesn't really offer anything new that you haven't seen before in other games, but being the TF fan that I am I do find this fun to play from time to time.

The game has been out now for awhile so your mileage may vary when it comes to finding it at your local arcade/bowling alley/barcade. If you can find it and you haven't played it, give it a whirl as you may be surprised at how much fun it is.