Those robots in disguise just can’t help smashing things on our little ball of dirt in the cosmos.
Mobile game publisher Backflip Studios released Transformers: Earth Wars, a mobile base-building strategy game (think Clash of Clans, but with the iconic Optimus Prime and Megatron instead of those loony warriors from Supercell’s hit). The Space Ape-developed mobile game is on iOS and Android, and it uses writers and voice actors from the original Transformers cartoon from the 1980s. The story extends the Generations Prime Wars trilogy story, which Transformers IP holder Hasbro is rolling out in toys and comics, to mobile gaming, the nearly $37 billion segment where many licensed games live nowadays.
It’s also the second game Backflip has made with a Hasbro IP since the toy company purchased a $112 million stake in the mobile publisher in 2014.
“The game features looks from the current ‘Generations’ line, which does have some IDW comics in addition to the figures,” a Backflip spokesperson said via email. “They definitely have a very G1 feel and the game features voice work from the original series actors Peter Cullen [Optimus Prime] and Frank Welker [Megatron], so there’s a lot for fans of G1 to love about the game.”
Cullen and Welker have reprised their voice roles in a number of games, films, and TV shows over the years. Cullen’s portraying Prime in two Transfomers shows: Cartoon Network’s Robots in Disguise and Rescue Bots on Discovery Family (formerly the Hub). Welker most recent turn as Megatron (and his trusty lieutenant, Soundwave) was in Transformers: Devestation, a brawler for consoles that launched in October.
In Earth Wars, you side with either Prime and the Autobots or Megatron and the Decepitcons, and the conflict apparently “decides the fate of planet Earth.” You build bases and raid your opponents’ strongholds for Energon (the Transformers’ fuel), and you want to build a teleporter-like Space Bridge to bring more troops from their home planet of Cybertron. It all happens in real time.