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Stern Pinball, purveyor of the ancient art of creating physical pinball machines for arcades, game rooms, and other such places in which one indulges in coin-op merriment, recently announced that they are going to be releasing a new series of units based on The Transformers. Specifically, the incarnation of Transformers which seems like it would have been right at home during the heyday of the pinball table and arcades as a whole, good ol' Generation 1. What's more is that it's coming soon. Real soon. Like, five days from now soon. The first reveal came by way of a teaser trailer on -- where else? -- YouTube: That was soon followed by a story trailer. (Yeah, some pinball machines have stories.) (At the time of this writing, the thumbnail is broken, but the video should still work.) Despite the release date being less than a week away, the Stern Pinball website for the game is, suffice to say, lacking in any sort of details on what to expect from this thing: Riveting. Fortunately, "Sammys collectible toys hall" on YouTube is here to provide us with a short but informative look at what one version of this table looks like: Got some decent stock art, as well as some 3D physical elements, though no G1 toys, which is something I can imagine them incorporating back in the day. As seen above, this table has three editions (Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition), but we don't know yet what sets any of them apart from one-another. What we do know is that getting your hands on one of these things ain't cheap: the manufacturer's suggested retain price is $12,999 USD (RRP – €11,999.00; £10,499.00), and that's presumably just for the basic Pro model. But if you're interested in getting one when they go on sale in a few days, then click here and enter your information, and one assumes they'll get back to you. So, what did you think? How many references did you spot? Feel free to talk about this here, or over in the "GameSpark News: For the TF VG Stuff That Maybe Doesn't Need Its Own Thread" thread in our forums! Allspark Forums Discord Server Twitter/X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

In a recent move, Hasbro's new VP of Digital Play, David Burke, has announced that Hasbro will be bringing its classic IPs together in a new way. Hasbro has always strived to unlock the value from its IPs, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, MONOPOLY, POWER RANGERS, HASBRO GAMES, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH and PEPPA PIG, as well as premier partner brands. Now Hasbro can do that with its newest game development called, "Hasbro Main Event". Battle classic IPs together like classic GI JOE characters against your favorite Power Ranger, or Fight a giant monster in Angel Grove as Metroplex. Hundreds of unlockable characters can now do battle in a Smash Bros style combat game that will release for all platforms this quarter. "We know that people have been cross playing with our brands toys for years now. GI JOEs battling Transformers, Transformers battling Power Rangers. Now you can do that digitally in one of the best games coming out this fall. Now your favorite characters can now do battle in dozens of stages from numerous franchises." "We are excited to bring this epic video game to the fans this holiday season." said David Burke, "and we look forward to seeing how long it takes for someone to unlock all 1000 characters in the game. " Hasbro's Main Event will be released FY 2027 for the Nintendo Switch, Sony Playstation, and Microsoft Xbox. About Hasbro Hasbro is a leading games, IP and toy company whose mission is to create joy and community through the magic of play. With over 164 years of expertise, Hasbro delivers groundbreaking play experiences and reaches over 500 million kids, families and fans around the world, through physical and digital games, video games, toys, licensed consumer products, location-based entertainment, film, TV and more. Through its franchise-first approach, Hasbro unlocks value from both new and legacy IP, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, MONOPOLY, HASBRO GAMES, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH and PEPPA PIG, as well as premier partner brands. Powered by its portfolio of thousands of iconic marks and a diversified network of partners and subsidiary studios, Hasbro brings fans together wherever they are, from tabletop to screen. For more than a decade, Hasbro has been consistently recognized for its corporate citizenship, including being named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media, a 2025 JUST Capital Industry Leader, one of the 50 Most Community-Minded Companies in the U.S. by the Civic 50, and a Brand that Matters by Fast Company. For more information, visit https://corporate.hasbro.com.

We return with our Left in Japan series with more G1 Transformers games that never made it out of Japan. Since we last left off in the 1980s with Nintendo games that never arrived on our shore, Transformers fans actually had 2 major releases for Transformers games in the 1990s. The first was an open world Beast Wars game where you play as either Maximal or Predacon with Season 1 characters. The second game we got was a 2d fighting game called Beast Wars: Transmetals for both the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. However, it would be several years later before we would get the next Transformers video game, 2004's Transformers. This game, released on the PlayStation 2 to much fan praise, featured, not the G1 cast, but the Armada characters. The year before, Japan got not one, but two G1 Transformers games! Transformers: Call of the Future Transformers: Call of the Future, was released in Japan on the PlayStation 2 on October 30th, 2003, published by Atlus. It is a 3D brawler, where you pick your faction, Autobot or Decepticon, and lead a team of three, punching, kicking, and blasting your way through enemy bots. At the end of each level, you get to have a boss fight, these are usually the more popular bots like Sondwave in level one, or even combiners later on like the ultimate combiner Predaking! The basic story premise is that in 2010, Shockwave would fuse himself with an alien artifact and destroy Cybertron. However, the survivors of that battle have come back in time to the year 2003 to stop him from ever retrieving the artifact. I won't drop any spoilers here, but the story itself isn't that bad and the CGI intro is pretty great for 2003. Also, if you play as the Decepticons, then you transform Megatron into his G1 gun mode! Check out the long play for the game below: If this game had come out in 2003 in the US, I think that it would have been well received by the fandom. I think people today would still be debating on which game was better this or the Armada game? Sadly, this has never been released stateside, despite the game being completely in English. DreamMix TV World Fighters Released by Hudson on December 13, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube, this game, isn't a purely Transformers game, but it does heavily feature G1 Optimus Prime and Megatron. This game is a Smash Bros style game, where you can play as an assortment of characters from Konami, Hudson, and Takara's intellectual properties. Other notable characters you can play as, besides the transformers, as Simon Belmont, Solid Snake, and Bomberman. There is a solo campaign, where you fight other characters to boost the ratings. Depending on your performance, you will get rated after the campaign is done. Playing the campaign with different characters unlocks new stages and characters. There is also a four person melee style mode like Smash Bros, as well as two other interesting game modes. However, what we want to discuss is the Transformers! You can play as Optimus Prime or Megatron, and there is even a cool G2 colored Devastator Level. Ultimately, this game is fun Smash Bros clone, and we get some interesting characters and stages. Check out the gameplay below: I wish that we could have got this game for the Gamecube or PlayStation 2 in the US, as it looks to be a real fun game with some of our favorite characters. I wonder what characters we would get swapped out if it was released over here? Check out Megatron in gun mode below: Fortunately for us fans stateside, we would get bombarded by Bayverse movie games in the years following this, an Animated series game for the DS, and two of the highest regarded Transformers games of all time. However, we will have to talk about those another time...

Like many of you G1 fans, I grew up in the 1980s and 90s, when the kids toy aisles were dominated by GI JOE and Transformers. Yet a new toy was coming to change the entire way we played, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It's hard to believe, but Nintendo was synonymous with gaming in the 1980s and early 1990s. Sega had not shown up to challenge it with its 16-bit Genesis, and Atari's desperate attempts to compete with their 5200 and the 7800 were pitiful at best. Unless you had a PC, Nintendo meant video games and vice versa. Now, a lot of franchises had at least one Nintendo video game. Franchises like the Flintstones, The Incredible Crash test dummies, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Tiny Toons, the jetsons, the Simpsons, Felix the cat, Spiderman, X-men, Robocop, Batman, Star Wars, and many more franchises had games on the NES. Heck, TMNT had 4 games on the NES and GI JOE, Hasbro's other big property, had two games itself! So why wasn't there a Transformers game on the NES? Well, there was, sort of. There were actually two G1 Transformers games released for the Nintendo in the 1980s, but both of them were only released in Japan for their Nintendo Famicom, which was their version of the NES. The first game, which is probably the most well known of the two games, was called Mystery of Convoy. It was released in 1986 as regular Famicom cartridge game, and is known for its extreme difficulty. You play as Ultra Magnus, making your way through various levels, trying to avoid seekers, and other Decepticons blasting you. You can transform at any time, and will need to do so every now and then to proceed. Eventually, you make it to the boss fight, which most of the time is a giant Decepticon logo. However, you do fight Bruticus, Menasor, Megatron, and Trypticon as bosses as well. The game, while probably the best G1 Transformer game of the 1980s, could have used some tweaks, like a life bar that allowed you to take more than one hit would have made the game much more enjoyable. Still, the game never was published in the US, and only found its way over here via emulation and Famicom importers. You can check out the full gameplay below: The second G1 game, called Transformers: The Headmasters, was released the following year in 1987 in Japan for the Famicom disk system. For those not aware, the Famicom disk system was an add-on disk drive for the Famicom that allowed it to play disk-based games instead of the usual cartridge based games we were all used to playing. This was necessary at the time to keep up with demand for games, as the cartridge games required computer chips that were in short supply at the time. Lots of notable game series were released his way in Japan, such as Zelda 1 and 2, Castlevainia, Super Mario Bros 2, Kid Icarus, and Metroid to name a few! I suspect that Transformers: The Headmaster isn't well known due to it being one of the nearly two hundred Disk System games instead of a cartridge. You unlock a few Transformers by rescuing them in the levels. The are two types of levels. One where you play in Vehicle mode, blasting things as you drive or fly along the surface of each world, with each transformer having a different alt mode and different firing angles. The second level type has you in a generic robot mode, that looks nothing like any Transformer, going underground while blasting various things in locked rooms to go to the next room until you reach a boss, who is just a color pallet swap of a generic character. Then at the end, you and your rescued Autobots will all jump inside Metroplex, and fight Scorponok. It's not that great of a game. In fact, if you told me that it was originally a different IP altogether and made into a Transformers game like they did with Super Mario Bros 2, I would believe you. As very little in this game has to do with Transformers. For example, I could swap seven art assets out of the game and it would no longer be a Transformer game. I can definitely see why they left this one in Japan. Check out the full gameplay below: While we did get a couple of G1 Transformer games on early PCs like the Commadore 64 in the US, none of them are really that great. In fact, it wasn't until many years and many attempts later that we would get a Transformers game in the US that was better than Mystery of Convoy. However, that is a different story for another time...

There hasn't been much said about Transformers: Reactivate in a while. Which makes sense -- people don't tend to talk about cancelled video games as much as those which have actually come out, or are still in development. Still, people are talking about it, especially when new pieces of would-be lost media tend to emerge, such as an early build of the game from RoboGamer1HD a few months ago. But RoboGamer1HD isn't the only one who's been peeling back layers of mystique like an onion, as the YouTube channel TFR Archive has also been doing some digging. And the latest fruits of their efforts? What would have been the E3 2020 trailer for the game back when it was called "Transformers: Rise": From the description on YouTube: For those of you too young to remember, shame on you for making me feel old. But also, E3 -- more formally known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- was a trade show formed by the giants of the video game industry of the '90s after they basically got tired of the shoddy treatment they received at the hands of the folks running Consumer Electronics Show. Yep, that's right. They decided to make their own trade show, with blackjack and booth babes. Lots of other spectacle, too. Anyway, thanks to the rise of the internet and instantaneous information, questions of E3's relevance began to creep into the minds of all who partook, and in 2020... well, let's just say lockdowns and social distancing were not very conducive to shaking hands and having hundreds of people laying their sweaty mitts on the same controllers throughout several hot summer Los Angeles days in a row. (Trust me, I know. I've been there.) Incidentally, the Consumer Electronics Show still continues to this day, while I'm having to explain to you here today what E3 was. Funny how life works out, though I don't think you need to feel too sorry for the folks in the gaming biz -- the very thing that helped kill it is allowing them to continue to thrive without shelling out thousands for floor space, so I guess it kinda worked out. Anyway, yeah. If there wasn't a pandemic in 2020, the above is what you would have seen that year. Pretty cool, huh? If you're interested in a more detailed look at the troubled history of the game itself, TFWiki has a nice entry. And if you're interested in more of the game itself, or what it was shaping up to be, those TFR Archive guys I told you about earlier? Yeah, they have more where this came from: A story intro and tutorial video, and three cutscenes featuring Starscream, Ratchet, and Bumblebee, so go give those a gander if your interest is piqued. So, what do you think? Is it better than how it debuted to the world at The Game Awards? Or do you think the "Oh, wait, this is actually a Transformers game? Huh, neat" approach was the right way to go? Well, you can share your thoughts in the comments below, or you can hitch a ride through this link on over to the "Transformers: Reactivate (console MMO)" thread to "rise" up and "reactivate" the conversation there! Thanks to Aerialbot Simp over on the Allspark Discord for bringing this to our attention! Allspark Forums Discord Server Twitter/X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

Transformers: Reactivate, nee Transformers: Rise, is something of a recent tale of tragedy among fans of robots in disguise. In a post-Transformers: Devastation world, video games that were more than meets the eye felt fewer and further between, and were usually fare such as Transformers: Battlegrounds, Transformers: Galactic Trials, and Transformers: Earthspark - Expedition. Not necessarily bad games, but certainly a far cry from the Triple-A fare that fans had grown accustomed to with Activision Blizzard's titles based on the Michael Bay films, the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron duology, or the aforementioned Devastation. But rising above the rest was a game that even went so far as to be featured at The Game Awards and have actual tie-in figures manufactured, released, and sold. Despite all of this, little would come of the game itself following that announcement, until its unfortunate cancellation at the start of this year. While we thought that unfortunate news would be the last we would hear of the game, something new has emerged. No, the project has not been reactivated itself, but we are privy to at least seeing what had been done with the game prior to the game getting the Jhiaxus treatment. RoboGamer1HD has been an avid follower of the title, and apparently has a build of the game, one which they'll be giving us a walkthrough of as a series on YouTube. From the description: RoboGamer1HD also had this to say in the pinned comment on the video: There will surely be more to come in the future. You know, provided Hasbro doesn't do something like send the Pinkertons to abscond with RoboGamer1HD's hard drive containing the build or something. But they'd never do something like that... right? Anyway, if you're interested in the development history of this title up to its unfortunate end, you can find a whole section about that and more in the article on TFWiki. And if you'd like to further mourn the title's loss, we've got a whole thread for it over in the good ol' Allspark forums. You can also leave a vial of your energon for it in the comments below. Allspark Forums Discord Server Twitter/X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

Note: The following review was written after a post-launch update. Therefore, some details and experiences by the reviewer may differ from other reviews published closer to the time of the game’s release. Note 2: This review would have been up earlier, but then Rita turned it into a monster and we had to destroy it. It was really cool, but it also meant we had to start over. Remember, you can never have too many redundancies, kids! It’s finally time… it’s reviewin’ time! Once and Always Our story begins in the far-off, long-ago time of… 2023. April 19th, to be exact. That’s when Hasbro and Netflix teamed together to celebrate 30 years of Power Rangers with the release of the 30th anniversary special titled Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always. The plot followed the original team of Power Rangers (and, for that matter, the original team of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which itself changed over the years) as they took on the forces of Robo-Rita: an android Empress of Evil created when the evil energies dispelled by Zordon’s sacrifice so many years ago fused with an Alpha unit. Ay-yi-yi, indeed! Robo-Rita’s plan was to create a time portal to go back in time to when she was first freed from her captivity, aka the “Day of the Dumpster”, and team with her past self to rewrite history in her favor. Of course, despite suffering some losses, the Rangers are able to push back and thwart her plans, thus ensuring that the timeline is maintained and good triumphs. But… what if they didn’t? That’s the starting premise of Rita’s Rewind, as the game begins with the Once & Always team of Rangers showing up at Bandora Palace (the place Rita operated out of on the moon) to put a stop to her nefarious scheme. But despite their best efforts, things diverge from the reality we know as she successfully makes the jump to 30 years (and ten minutes) into the past. The modern MMPR want to go after her, but Billy warns of the possible temporal consequences that might occur if they were to make the attempt (translation: It could get all Back to the Future up in Angel Grove, and they don’t want that), so they decide to leave the original team to handle things. As an aside, the story presents a fun thing about this title: Rather than being able to play as six different Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, you can actually play as up to nine different Rangers here (though not all at once). The original team consisted of Zack, Kimberly, Billy, Trini, Jason, and later Tommy, while in Once & Always, the team was formed by Zack, Katherine, Billy, Minh (making this her first playable appearance, I believe), and Rocky. You don’t get to see the latter group unmorphed, though, but still, that’s a neat little piece of trivia for you to break out at parties. Anyway, things more or less go off the way they did in the original premiere episode: Zordon orders his ro-butler Alpha-5 to abduct a group of five overbearing and emotional humans (or “teenagers with attitude,” if you prefer) so they can be infused with dino-powers and spandex (whoops, not spandex. My bad) to form a defense for the Earth against giant monster expies from The Wizard of Oz and clay foot soldiers. (Man, I love this series.) From there, we basically get a truncated reprise of the start of the series through the “Green with Evil” story arc. And yes, it’s true! In case you haven’t already heard (or looked at the cover art), Tommy Oliver, the original Green Ranger, is here! And he’s playable, too! This may not seem like a big deal, but folks who grew up with Nintendo platforms should know only too well the pain of not being able to play, or even see, the most popular Ranger of his day. It was certainly a choice someone made at the time, to be sure. (It was also something you can bet the SEGA faithful were only too happy to lord over their Nintendo contemporaries in the Console Wars.) That said, there is a bit of a catch. For starters, you can only play as him after beating the game, which also bumps up the 5-player co-op to 6-player. However, while you can then replay any or all of the stages as Tommy, he doesn’t really get any additional dialogue or anything to reflect his presence there. Still, it beats the pants off of what we had on the Super NES and Game Boy! (Genesis and Game Gear owners, you may proceed to gloat.) Mighty Raw Mighty Morphin Power Rangers occupies an interesting place in pop culture history. It was without question a product of its time in the early ’90s, and as such, the developers at Digital Eclipse has fully embraced the ’90s-ness for this outing. It delivers on the beat ’em up genre, and so much more, albeit in a more contemporary style. For instance, the graphics use a modern-retro pixel art style (a la Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge) that evokes what was more commonplace at the time, yet doesn’t really look like how a game from the time would look. Have a look to see what I mean: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (SNES, via Emerald Rangers) | Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (Genesis, via NEPA Scene) | Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind (Xbox, PS5, Steam, Switch) Of course, if you want to bring things a little closer to how they looked back then, you can add scan lines and other filter effects, if you wish. Personally, just the regular pixel style was good enough for me. There is a fair amount of variety in stage themes, including a graveyard. And who knew Angel Grove had a subway line (complete with an homage to one of the progenitors of the genre)? "Ms. Appleby always said that if we kept skipping out on classes, we'd find ourselves working the graveyard shift. But I don't think this is what she meant." Sound is kind of a mixed bag, though not necessarily in a bad way. While both the classic Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme (but not the full version) and Bulk and Skull theme are lovingly rendered with more of a chiptune sound, few if any other songs from the series made it in. What’s here is good, don’t get me wrong, but there were times when I really wanted to hear “5-4-1”, “I Will Win”, and of course, “Go Green Ranger Go”. Likewise, none of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers cast reprise their roles in the voice cast here. And I mean, that’s perfectly understandable, from my perspective. There are almost as many reasons why that wouldn’t work as there are Rangers, so going fresh with a whole new cast makes sense here. While I don’t think there will be anyone confusing them for the originals, most of them do capture the general vibe and sound the original Angel Grove teens had. Well, except for Jason. He sounded the most askew of any of them from how they sounded in the show. And that’s really only a criticism if the direction was “try to sound as much like these guys as you possibly can.” But if you’ve never heard the original Jason before, then he probably meshes fine with the rest. Juice and Cut Loose Getting into the meat of the game, there are 15 stages in total. For the most part, this amounts to two brawling stages, followed by either a 3D driving stage where you ride motorcycles or pilot your chosen Ranger’s Dinozord in a 3D run ‘n gun stage that culminates in combining to form the Dino Megazord. From there, it becomes a Punch-Out!!-esque boss fight. Breaking it down further, there are four difficulties to choose from: Easy (Easy enemies, unlimited continues), Normal (Normal enemies, 10 continues), Hard (Hard enemies, 5 continues), and Headache (unlocked by finishing Hard; Hard enemies, no continues). So no matter your skill level, you should be able to find something that suits your needs. "Hey, Putty, tell me: Do you bleed?" All the stages are laid out on a neat map of Angel Grove, though moving back and forth through the levels from one end to the other can feel a little cumbersome. You can also use this screen to visit the Juice Bar, where you can talk to other characters from the show such as Ernie, Ms. Appleby, Principal Caplan, and of course, Bulk and Skull, who (as always) are the most entertaining by far, and get the most varied dialogue as you go. You can also swap out which Ranger you’re currently using, and you’ll also find a bulletin board with a checklist of collectibles you can find throughout the game’s stages and their descriptions, each a callback to a different episode of the classic television show. There are also three retro-style arcade games, which require parts found in three different levels to repair in order to play them. These call back to various ’80s and ’90s-styled arcade games, from Spy Hunter to the “Test Your Might” bonus stages from Mortal Kombat. It’s Morphin’ Time! Getting back into the main gameplay loop, each level has up to three goals for completion: No deaths, S Rank (complete within a stated time), and finding all the secrets, which ranges from freeing characters to finding hidden items, which fill out the Juice Bar as described above. The beat ’em up levels play really well. A lot of games of these types will lock you in a certain direction as you’re wailing on the enemy, which allows for other enemies to sneak up on you from behind. But movement here feels very fluid, as you can move from one enemy to the next, back and forth so that you’re not left at a disadvantage. As a result, once you know your moves and get into the flow, you can jump, flip, kick, and zip all over the place, pounding Putty Patrollers and trouncing Tenga Warriors. “Tenga Warriors?” you might be asking. “Aren’t they from Season 3?” Yes, they are, and that ties into the plot, as all of Robo-Rita’s toying with time travel has led to some anachronistic appearances from myriad monsters, Tenga included. This leads to some neat pairings, like Chunky Chicken from Season 1 tag teaming with Turkey Jerk from Season 2 — a fun nod to the fact that the costumer for the former was repurposed to create the latter. That said, don’t expect any heavy hitters to cross the timeline here; I’m sure those are being saved for (hopeful) sequels. Remember, kids: Reduce, reuse, recycle! The time travel aspect also lends itself to a more unique gameplay aspect that truly sets this title apart from its genre contemporaries. Part of the Ritas’ plot involves harvesting time crystals, and about once per beat ’em up level, some Putties will come out to throw a big Time Disruptor device at you. If the counter on this mechanism reaches zero, then it basically rewinds all the progress you made in this screen of each level, forcing you to do it over again. One thing worth noting is that in these portions, all the Rangers kinda feel the same, unfortunately. I suppose that can be a good thing when there are six of you standing together, fighting evil, with no one being the weak link (because let’s face it, Billy’s genius doesn’t really come into play very much from a gameplay standpoint), but it also hinders replayability across different Rangers. So when you’re swapping them out at the Juice Bar, it’s really more down to aesthetics and personal preference thereof. Incidentally, to that point, it’s worth pointing out that for fans of the Power Weapons, you should know that they don’t play a big part of the action. They get brought out mainly as big moves during combos. The Dragon Dagger gets a little bit more play, as Tommy uses it to summon Dragonzord’s missiles for his Special Move. Meanwhile, the Blade Blasters get unholstered for some target shooting in their own special segment, but you don’t get to use them during most normal play, either. We Need Dinozord Power, Now! With one exception that dips into spoiler territory, the third stages vary between racing on motorcycles (a nod to the old Battle Bikes from the merch of the day and the show’s Super Sentai equivalent that almost never made it into the show, but are different in that each Ranger gets their own, rather than just Red, Black, and Blue, with Yellow and Pink in sidecars) and piloting your respective Dinozords. Both stage types are in 3D, and presented with an aesthetic that’s reminiscent of the old SEGA Super Scaler technology. Nobody puts Kimberly in the sidecar. The motorcycle stages have you racing down the streets of Angel Grove, collecting coins and blasting away at Putties who are playing their own version of Grand Theft Auto while dodging obstacles and attacks. Certain vehicles will need to be destroyed to expose the Time Crystals inside, which must then be destroyed before they can rewind time, much as they do in the side-scroller stages. Succeed in taking out the targets, and that’s the stage completed. These are the less-common and simpler of the two. Wow, Goldar looks so much bigger in person than he did on TV! The real draw is when it’s time for your Rangers to summon their Dinozords. When they show up, you’ll be in a sequence that’s sort of a 3D auto-scroller, wherein your respective Zords run/drive/fly towards the back of the screen. Here, you’ll need to blast enemies and certain targets, dodge obstacles, and collect coins and power-ups to increase your firepower. The Ritas are running a mining operation for Time Crystals, and it’s up to you to see to it that the Putties operating it get to clock out early — for good. As such, you’ll enter these caverns where you’ll need to destroy these sort of mini-boss-like stations before proceeding. The Dinozords’ respective attacks mostly feel well-represented here, and this provides one area in which one Ranger does manage to stand out — Kimberly. Since she pilots the Pterodactyl, which is effectively a plane, she doesn’t have to worry about the more ground-based obstacles like pits that her teammates do. "Remember, team: If we don't move, he can't see us. Right, Billy?" "That's a negative. A big one. Maybe I should lead..." Once you’ve reached the appropriate point in the stage, it’s time for Dino Megazord power! The Dinozords combine in a neat sequence with a sort of comic book-like illustration style, and then things switch to a battle mode that’s more akin to something like Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! games. Unlike those titles, where you’re largely fixed in place and pivoting to dodge blows, there are points where you need to pursue the Monster of the Week Stage you’re fighting. Like the aforementioned boxing game, you’ll bob and weave left and right, forward and back to avoid attacks from the enemy, while looking for opportunities to deliver punches of your own, left and right, respectively. Doing this fills up a meter that will be used to summon the Mega Power Sword for a final strike against the weakened foe. However, if there’s more than one person playing, then the meter is segmented, and players take turns round-robin style to get in on the action and help fill the meter. If one player fails, another can pick up the slack. 'Alright, you big monkey. Come catch these hands!" And of course, once you beat the game and unlock the Green Ranger, the mighty Dragonzord is also yours to command in these sections. Unfortunately, though, you don’t really get to enjoy any of the cool, unique attacks and features that helped make this draconic king of the Zords so beloved. While I guess the blaster fire could be equated to its missiles, there’s no drill tail whip to be had, and when it comes time to form the Megazord, there’s no opportunity to use the Dragonzord instead, or even the Dragonzord’s combined Battle Mode. But say it with me, now: It’s still more and better than we got on the SNES! Other Modes, Online, and More Yeah, I tried to find a good Billy technobabble quote for the title of this section, and failed. I have let you down, Ranger Nation. Anyway, in addition to the main story mode, there are two extra offline modes: Training and Speedrun. Training shows you some of your moves, but not quite everything. Meanwhile, Speedrun is just the regular game, but with a clock in the corner. Everything else is intact, from the map to the cutscenes to just faffing about in the Juice Bar. As a result, I can’t imagine that this is as “raw” as I’d think a dedicated speedrunner would want such a mode to be. Not that I’m anything resembling a speedrunner myself, I could be completely wrong here. I played the game on both the Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, and found it performed well on both platforms. Not that I expected any different from the former, but sometimes you never know with the latter. There's no rave like a '90s rave. However, it’s when I took things online that things got a bit shaky. There are two modes for matching up with someone on Xbox, and presumably most other versions: Quick Match and Invite. Basically, pairing up with random strangers or inviting someone you know in to join you. On the Switch, there’s a third option for local play between multiple Switches. I don’t know if anyone else I know is playing, so I went the Quick Match route. It took me a bit to find a match on Xbox. I gave it five minutes with nothing happening before I backed out. I immediately tried again, and then got connected to someone in one. I couldn’t pick the Green Ranger for whatever reason, having already beaten the game at that point. Apparently, at least for Quick Matches, you’re starting from scratch. It makes me wonder if you have to beat the game again while online in order to play as him online, or how that works. Maybe he’s not available for Quick Matches? Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get to find out. Everything was going well until the other person I connected with and I reached the middle of the fifth stage. That’s when we were disconnected for some reason, and that was that. "Oh no! Rita's started her own social network! We've got to shut it down, fast!" "That's not what -- oh, whatever. I'll be running this outfit in 30 years, anyway." Over on Switch, it wasn’t much better. I found a match much quicker on my first time than my first Xbox attempt, after about a minute or so. But we didn’t really get to play, as we were disconnected before getting to properly start due to a network error. This happened twice. Almost ten minutes later, I got a match that finally worked… for about six minutes into the first stage. I called it after that. I tend to find Switch online play shakier than Xbox’s, anyway, and your mileage may vary altogether. Still, that was my experience. Take it for what you will. Morphenomenal Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is, in a word, good. As a reminder, I have been playing an updated/patched version of the title, so my experience may be different from what players and reviewers experienced when it first came out, but as the game is now? It’s good. Maybe even great. I won’t blow smoke and try to pretend it’s the greatest game ever, stomping the likes of Mario and God of War or anything like that, but it’s not trying to. It’s out to deliver a fun Power Rangers experience, and as a Power Rangers fan for 32 years running, I feel like they succeeded. It’s not perfect — did I mention I’m a big Green Ranger fan? So there might be some bias there — but it’s still a really good Power Rangers game, and definitely in the top percentage of titles released to fly the Rangers banner over these last three decades. And even as just a regular video game, apart from all the Power Rangers trappings? It’s just good, solid fun. Definitely give this one a look if you’re into spandex-clad super heroes, martial arts, tokusatsu monsters, giant combining dinosaur robots, and retro-styled beat ’em ups. You might just like what you see. We give Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind six out of seven Power Coins. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is available now digitally on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Steam for PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 for $34.99 USD. Review codes were provided by the publisher. Allspark Forums Discord Server X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

It's official. Transformers: Reactivate has been deactivated. Splash Damage, the studio allegedly working on the game, broke the news on X Formerly Known as Twitter today. This ends the long and tortured development history of this once promising game. You can discuss the news below, and be sure to check out our ongoing forum thread where we've been discussing this game for years. It's been a long ride, but it seems it's finally over. Join the Allspark today.

The upcoming idle RPG Transformers: Eternal War is shaping up, and more designs for the game are being shared by developer Wanda Cinemas Games. They've previously shared designs for Optimus Prime and Megatron, and now everyone's favorite yellow scout is next! In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the devs noted that Bumblebee will not be the Movieverse/TF Prime beeps-and-boops sort, but the familiar "chatterbox" personality, with "much to say"! https://x.com/TFEternalWar/status/1867555069941444868 Who do you want to join "Transformers: Eternal War" next? Allspark Forums Discord Server X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

It's finally time! Morphin' Time, that is, as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Revenge has launched on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam! As usually accompanies such an event, here is the official launch trailer for the game: What do you think? Are you going to get a copy? Or did you already pre-order? Which Ranger do you want to play as? If you've played, what are your thoughts? TELL US!!! Join the Allspark today. Allspark Forums Discord Server X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

As the world prepares itself for the release of G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra in mere days, more news has come out about the fate of another video game adventure featuring A Real American Hero. Released in 2020, G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is a team-based third-person shooter pitting six members of a daring highly-trained special mission force against six of those from a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. Options range from running through a story campaign with local split-screen co-op to 4-player "player versus player" matches, featuring modes such as Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Assault, and of course, Deathmatch Arena. Because we all know Cobra Commander loves a good Deathmatch Arena. However, fans apparently didn't love the game quite as much. Reviews gathered by score aggregator Metacritic averaged in the range of 51 to 56, depending on the version. With that said, publisher GameMill Entertainment has announced on Steam that they will be delisting the game there on December 31st, 2024, meaning it will have been available there for just over four years. That goes for its downloadable content as well, which TrueAchievements notes "there is one DLC pack that includes a couple of skins, but the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game does include some extra cosmetics, a digital soundtrack, and a digital art book." Currently, the game is on sale for all major platforms. So if you're only just now hearing about this game for the first time and want to give it a look, it's available as of this writing on Steam for $11.21 CAD (67% off) for the vanilla edition, and $11.60 CAD (80% off) for the Digital Deluxe edition until November 21st. Hey, it's just 39 cents more. Why not treat yourself? Over in Nintendo Land, the Switch version of the game is a whopping $49.99 CAD, but the Digital Deluxe version is $11.99, down from $59.99, a cool 80% off, also until November 21st. But on Xbox, the base game is $12.49 CAD, but the Digital Deluxe version is full price at $59.99. Weird. And finally, the PlayStation version (the lowest rated of the three) is $39.99 USD for the vanilla and $49.99 USD for the Digital Deluxe, because sure, why not at this point? Thanks to SteevyMaximus for the tip! In other news, if GameSpot's 14 minutes of Green Ranger gameplay from the upcoming Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Revenge wasn't enough to whet your appetite, then IGN has a whopping eight minute preview of their own: For those who can't/won't be bothered to watch, here's a spoilered breakdown of some new information: Overall, the consensus is that it looks like Digital Eclipse will deliver on the sort of coin-op experience we all wish we'd gotten to have with these teenagers with attitude back in the day... ...that is, before Street Fighter II swooped in and turned everyone's attention towards one-on-one fighting games for the next several years. Ah, Power Rangers, you were just a bit too late. If only Robo Rita had gone back to 1991 instead of 1993. Join the Allspark today. Allspark Forums Discord Server X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

As Morphin Time draws ever closer, more and more tidbits are coming out about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind. Probably the worst kept secret since Day 1 was that yes, Tommy Oliver, the original Green Ranger, would be playable alongside his teammates in this beat 'em up adventure. Despite this, we haven't actually gotten to see the Green Ranger go in any of the game's footage. That is, until now. GameSpot managed to land an exclusive 14-minute look at the game, featuring the Master of the Dragonzord in all his green glory. We also get to hear the voices for each of the Rangers on the character select screen, and some sound like digitized versions of their respective actors, others sound close enough to pass if you don't focus on it too hard, and then there's Jason. Wow. The video shows the beginning of the story, and pretty much the whole first stage, but unfortunately, no Dinozord action. If you can't wait until the game comes out, or just want to get a feel for what's going to be on offer in the beat 'em up stages, take a gander -- er, I mean, "Behold the Viewing Window": Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind will be hitting Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Steam on PC, and PlayStation 4 and 5 on December 10th, 2024. With this and G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra coming out soon, it's just too bad we don't have some sort of Generation 1-based Transformers beat 'em up to complete a Hasbro retro trifecta this holiday season. Oh well. Join the Allspark today. Allspark Forums Discord Server X Facebook Page Bluesky Instagram

Whooooo's ready for a new Transformers mobile game? ...yeah, tough. You're getting one, anyway. From out of the darkness, a new trailer for a new Transformers mobile game titled "Transformers: Eternal War" was stealthily dropped on its own dedicated YouTube channel to little fanfare. Make of that what you will as you watch it right here: The official description on the video is as follows: Are you excited yet? I know you're out there, I can hear you breathing. Anyway, this is coming to us from Wanda Cinemas Games, who've also made games based on Saint Seiya and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Oh, wait, that second one just says "stay tuned" when I try to pull up its official site. In fact, all their other games besides Saint Seiya say that. And Transformers: Eternal War isn't even listed on their home page, "stay tuned" or otherwise. Well, okay then. I'm sure that's got nothing to do with the sense of foreboding I've got right now. In other news, Gematsu brings us two minutes of gameplay footage wrapped up as a trailer, yet is not featured on developer Digital Eclipse's home page, for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Revenge. Well, whatever, it looks cool: We get to see some Putty-fighting, Rita making her monster (in this case, Goldar) grow, and the Dinozords doing that thing where they all (except Pterodactyl) run at the monster and attack before joining together to form the Megazord. Which they also do. And you get a cockpit-style view right out of the TV show (kinda) that leads into what looks like a sort of Teleroboxer-style fight. Which we don't get to see. And in case you missed it, there was another trailer recently featuring the reveal of the release date. Feel free to discuss your anticipation or disdain for what you've bore witness to here today down below. Because that's how we roll now. I mean, we're not going to go over to your house and touch all your gold plastic toys if you don't, but maybe give it a fair shot, yeah? Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

Now we know what time is Morphin’ Time. While things have been looking rather grim for fans of teenagers (and some adults) with attitude, particularly since the end of Power Rangers Cosmic Fury and Hasbro seemingly not knowing just what to do with the franchise beyond letting others handle it for them, things haven’t been totally bleak. For instance, the upcoming video game beat ’em up brawler, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind (which seems to take a cue from the 30th anniversary Netflix special Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always) is looking pretty slick. But when, oh when, is it coming out? Well, fortunately, developer Digital Eclipse has dropped a new trailer that tells us exactly that. Behold the viewing globe — er, YouTube embed! If you’re not able to view it right now (and if you clicked on this, you’ll probably want to for some of the new footage), but still want to know right nowwhen you’ll be holding your belt buckle to the sky while shouting the names of various prehistoric animals… it’s December 10th. Just six weeks away. Just in Morphin’ Time for the holidays! Is that Morphin’ Timely enough for you? …okay, I’ll stop now. If you’d like to discuss this, or just the general state of the once-flourishing franchise, then head over to the “Power Rangers General Discussion Thread” in our forums, and let the good times roll! Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!