There are times when the bigwigs in Hollywood get things absolutely wrong. The He-Man movie, for example, destroyed my very early teens with its complete disregard for everything - everything - that was good about the cartoon. She-Ra was nowhere to be seen, Man-At-Arms was distressingly middle-class and where the hell was Battlecat? But, thank the Lord, with the rough always comes the smooth, because sometimes, just sometimes, those aforementioned bigwigs get it right.

This year saw the release of what is probably the greatest example of a childhood legend brought to the present day for the gratification of every one of us who may well be grown-up on the outside, but still carries that giggling little child within. The new Transformers movie, in a nutshell, made me feel good. So imagine my prolonged joy at learning of the proposed release of a videogame cash-in (sorry! I meant tie-in). Surely, said I, they would never subject a franchise with a legacy such as this to the usual mish-mash, quick-release, rush-job method of game production like they have with countless titles in the past. Surely Transformers deserves better, surely the powers that be would see this opportunity to make a fantastic, free-roaming, form-changing, speed-racing, RPG-lite sandbox adventure and seize it with both hands!

Unfortunately, however, I was wrong. Or maybe not wrong, just overly optimistic. Because while there are some elements in the game for which developers Traveller's Tales should feel proud, there are many more that should force them to hang their heads in absolute shame. In the interest of fairness though, and perhaps because I'm slightly biased towards anything Transformers-related, I'll start by examining the good points.

First of all, the game is not a bad size. There are two campaigns to play through, allowing you to choose between either the goodie-goodie Autobots or the meaner, leaner Decepticons. Anyone not familiar with the story should be made aware at this point that the Autobots and Decepticons are two sides of the same robotic race who have warred for centuries (causing the complete the annihilation of their home world, Cybertron) over something called the Allspark, a powerful device which gives their race life. Somehow the Allspark has ended up here on Earth, and so have the Transformers, now waging their war on our planet. While the Autobots are sworn to protect all life, the Decepticons seem to delight in stomping all over us squishy humans.

As a good guy at heart (no, really), I naturally assumed control of the Autobots the first time I played the game. Taking on the role of Bumblebee, I was informed by Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots (voiced by the original movie actor, Peter Cullen) where to go and what to do. A quick press of the Y button found me transforming from car to robot and back again, so I could either walk or run to my destination, a journey that, either way, took no longer than five completely uneventful minutes. Missions are triggered by walking, driving or flying into a green column of light, which then activates a brief video before you are launched into the action. Once complete, the columns of light turn yellow, and the mission can be replayed at any time. Between missions, the game is, essentially, free-roaming, although Grand Theft Autobot this ain't!

You can drive around blindly, occasionally collecting shiny cubes to earn unlockable bonus features, participating in pointless races that are more frustrating than fun because of the dodgy handling, or you can just wallop every identikit, random Decepticon that comes your way. Although the latter is fun the first time you do it, is soon loses its appeal, since the combat is limited to light and heavy weapons (which you simply won't use) to hammering the X button like it's a pop-up rodent at a Splat-A-Rat carnival game. A push of the B button allows you to pick up objects to hurl at your enemies, usually the only way to remove their annoying shields so that you can wade in and beat seven shades of steel out of them. While you can climb buildings, chuck cars around like crisp-packets and generally destroy the almost fully destructible environments to your heart's content, as an Autobot you get penalised for causing too much carnage. So you're better off just heading to the next mission (which is either driving, fighting, or fighting and driving) and getting it over with until either you finish the game or wake up the next morning having fallen asleep and dribbled all over the controller. Sorry, I promised I'd start with the good points didn't I? It could be said that playing as a Decepticon is one of the game's good points, I suppose, since you're then rewarded for causing mayhem and chaos in liberal amounts. Also, most of the Decepticons are planes and helicopters and, bizarrely, the badly executed handling seems to work better with a flying vehicle than with a road-based contrivance. It's always more fun to play the bad guy, if we're honest, and Transformers is no exception to the rule. The evil campaign mode manages to elevate a bad game to a mediocre game all on its own.

Graphically, the game is okay. It does have a slightly cartoony-feel at times, and the cityscapes are pretty drab and uninspiring. The destructible scenery, however is well handled, as are the screen-shaking explosions and blurry speed-effects when you drive or fly with the nitro held down. In terms of animation, the 360 can do far, far better than this, however, and its just another area where the developers have cut corners to tie-in the release date with that of the movie. The sound effects are what you'd expect. Big explosions, revving engines, an overly dramatic score - although extra credit should go to Traveller's Tales for using the same voice actors from the movie to play Optimus Prime and Decepticon leader Megatron. It doesn't add much to a lacklustre game, but every little helps.

Something that must be addressed in this day and age is the complete and total lack of a multiplayer. Surely something could have been done in this area to extend the longevity of the game, to add a little more depth to proceedings. No content downloads, no leaderboards, no Xbox Live whatsoever. These days, this is downright unacceptable.

Unfortunately, Transformers: The Game is another example of lazy game development, an obvious cash-in that doesn't try to take the story further than the movie, offers nothing new in terms of gameplay, animation or genre and manages to disappoint pretty regularly. As such, this is not something that is likely to appeal to the adult gamers of the world, no matter how crazy you were about Transformers as a kid. Younger players may enjoy the linear, smash 'em up style of the game, but anyone with money to spend should give this a miss. You only have to look over last-gen attempts like James Bond: Everything or Nothing, Enter the Matrix or The Chronicles of Riddick to see how a videogame movie tie-in should be.

Overall, Transformers: The Game scores poorly, not because it's a terrible game, but because it comes nowhere near to realising its vast potential. It could have been sandbox, it could have been free roaming, it could have included RPG-elements and upgrades, downloadable content and four-on-four multiplayer, or even better, Crackdown style co-op. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Instead, what we're left with, once again, is lazy development and blatant cash farming from a development team that should know better. Sometimes the Hollywood bigwigs get it right; sometimes the videogames industry gets it right. Wouldn't it be nice if they could both get it right at the same time. Now that would be something to see.

Reviewed by Mick Fraser for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).