So I hear Grimlock's dead. Is that eggnog?
Welcome back to another thrilling episode of Transformers: Cyberworld! This week, in Episode 7 of Season 2, the cleverly named "Robots in the Ice" (say it out loud if you haven't caught on yet) ("Autobots VS Snow: SURVIVAL Challenge!" on YouTube), we get to meet all sorts of new faces!
From the YouTube description:
If you haven't seen it yet, go nuts:
And now, for my spoilery recap/review.
We start with Jazz in his polar bear mode running and jumping his way up a mountain, complete with a leaping sound effect that would be right at home in a Mario or Sonic game. Nice touch!
He soon runs into a bigger bot, who clearly has words for him. And fangs. And fur. But some sort of vehicle mode?
It's Hound, who is a whole lot less recognizable in this series compared to just about anyone this side of Galvatron. And he tells Jazz to be mindful of his surroundings. Jazz is about to protest that he is, but then he's suddenly caught off guard by a pouncingTigatron Cheetor!
I know the discussion has been had with the reveal of the toy, but as my wife watched alongside me, she was equally confused by this.
Cheetor is definitely bringing the "youth" element in a way that I'm not sure even Bumblebee did. He has an amusing quirk in that whenever he transforms, he shouts "Cheetor, Maximize!" I appreciate that Jazz calls this out, and it's just a thing he apparently does on purpose, and not because he needs to.
Jazz and Cheetor and there and ready to report, but there's training to be... uh, trained! So off they go.
Jazz and Cheetor feel more like peers here than I would expect from previous incarnations, which is kinda nice.
Also, Hound apparently drinks his own oil, which elicits a less-than-thrilled reaction from Jazz. Which, I get. Ew.
The three get to a program, and Hound demands a report. Jazz says he thought they were going to train, but it looks like Hound wants the report as they train.
From here, it basically becomes a recap episode. Not a clip show, mind you, but Jazz tells Hound what he knows about what the others went through in Season 1 and up to this point, but he does it in his own way (as we saw previously), and the scenes are animated to match up to it. It's different, and I think preferable to a standard clip show.
Kind of ironic that they do this just as the channel has also started to run around-the-clock 12-hour live streams of the first season, too.
One amusing little bit is that if you have subtitles on (as I usually do, since so much sound mixing these days is trash), when Jazz says "I ran into Elita-1, and we rapped a little," the subs say "I ran into Windblade and we wrapped a little." "Wrapped" typo aside, that's a rather peculiar error. Probably doesn't mean anything, though.
The games here seem rather varied. First, Jazz eliminates Cheetor by shooting him with a sniper rifle, then Hound comes up behind Jazz and eliminates him with his own gun.
Then the three are each on their own floating platform, juggling orbs and throwing one to another.
Hound isn't particularly thrilled to find out Optimus Prime is here. More on that in a bit.
Then comes a funny game, where they're having to figure skate and partner up for poses to fit through shapes in an energy wall, not unlike a certain Japanese game show.
I particularly like the part where Jazz recaps Scorponok off-lining Megatron, mostly for the little victory pose Scorponok does while in scorpion mode. It's just a cute touch.
Hound laments the state of affairs, and perhaps offers a little insight into what Cyberworld is supposed to be. He notes that "This world was our chance to be better, a utopia. Instead, Prime has just brought Cybertron's war here.
Jazz and Cheetor want to rest after the game, but Hound sends them back in to another one, then goes off to a cave.
Earlier, Cheetor mentioned Hound talking to himself, but maybe he's not. For inside the cave, we see him talking to... Ultra Magnus! Who Hound feels should have been Prime, rather than Optimus. Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose. But maybe we'll get to see why when Ultra Magnus rolls -- er, I guess flies, here -- into action and takes on Decepticons that no one else can.
Except Ultra Magnus isn't talking back. And his character seems a little... flat. And I don't mean his personality, but like, literally. The image isn't talking back, and as the camera pans, it seems to be a two-dimensional projection of some kind that's also shorting out a bit. And between flickers... Magnus ain't lookin' so hot. In fact, he's looking like he might be kinda dead.
Interesting idea, selling a toy based on the corpse of a dead guy-- oh, wait. Never mind.
Anyway, Hound goes on about doing "whatever is necessary to save them and put this right". Ominous.
So yeah, as I said, this was a fun way to recap the story. We got three new characters introduced, plus more of a fourth who was only just recently introduced, and we got a good sense of their dynamic, along with some potential breadcrumbs on this whole Cyberworld thing. And also as I said, I prefer this to a regular clip show.
Gotta admit, though, I was not expecting Ultra Magnus. Rather, I thought we'd see Optimus Primal instead. Not disappointed (except that we still haven't seen Primal yet), just surprised.
He soon runs into a bigger bot, who clearly has words for him. And fangs. And fur. But some sort of vehicle mode?
It's Hound, who is a whole lot less recognizable in this series compared to just about anyone this side of Galvatron. And he tells Jazz to be mindful of his surroundings. Jazz is about to protest that he is, but then he's suddenly caught off guard by a pouncing
I know the discussion has been had with the reveal of the toy, but as my wife watched alongside me, she was equally confused by this.
Cheetor is definitely bringing the "youth" element in a way that I'm not sure even Bumblebee did. He has an amusing quirk in that whenever he transforms, he shouts "Cheetor, Maximize!" I appreciate that Jazz calls this out, and it's just a thing he apparently does on purpose, and not because he needs to.
Jazz and Cheetor and there and ready to report, but there's training to be... uh, trained! So off they go.
Jazz and Cheetor feel more like peers here than I would expect from previous incarnations, which is kinda nice.
Also, Hound apparently drinks his own oil, which elicits a less-than-thrilled reaction from Jazz. Which, I get. Ew.
The three get to a program, and Hound demands a report. Jazz says he thought they were going to train, but it looks like Hound wants the report as they train.
From here, it basically becomes a recap episode. Not a clip show, mind you, but Jazz tells Hound what he knows about what the others went through in Season 1 and up to this point, but he does it in his own way (as we saw previously), and the scenes are animated to match up to it. It's different, and I think preferable to a standard clip show.
Kind of ironic that they do this just as the channel has also started to run around-the-clock 12-hour live streams of the first season, too.
One amusing little bit is that if you have subtitles on (as I usually do, since so much sound mixing these days is trash), when Jazz says "I ran into Elita-1, and we rapped a little," the subs say "I ran into Windblade and we wrapped a little." "Wrapped" typo aside, that's a rather peculiar error. Probably doesn't mean anything, though.
The games here seem rather varied. First, Jazz eliminates Cheetor by shooting him with a sniper rifle, then Hound comes up behind Jazz and eliminates him with his own gun.
Then the three are each on their own floating platform, juggling orbs and throwing one to another.
Hound isn't particularly thrilled to find out Optimus Prime is here. More on that in a bit.
Then comes a funny game, where they're having to figure skate and partner up for poses to fit through shapes in an energy wall, not unlike a certain Japanese game show.
I particularly like the part where Jazz recaps Scorponok off-lining Megatron, mostly for the little victory pose Scorponok does while in scorpion mode. It's just a cute touch.
Hound laments the state of affairs, and perhaps offers a little insight into what Cyberworld is supposed to be. He notes that "This world was our chance to be better, a utopia. Instead, Prime has just brought Cybertron's war here.
Jazz and Cheetor want to rest after the game, but Hound sends them back in to another one, then goes off to a cave.
Earlier, Cheetor mentioned Hound talking to himself, but maybe he's not. For inside the cave, we see him talking to... Ultra Magnus! Who Hound feels should have been Prime, rather than Optimus. Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose. But maybe we'll get to see why when Ultra Magnus rolls -- er, I guess flies, here -- into action and takes on Decepticons that no one else can.
Except Ultra Magnus isn't talking back. And his character seems a little... flat. And I don't mean his personality, but like, literally. The image isn't talking back, and as the camera pans, it seems to be a two-dimensional projection of some kind that's also shorting out a bit. And between flickers... Magnus ain't lookin' so hot. In fact, he's looking like he might be kinda dead.
Interesting idea, selling a toy based on the corpse of a dead guy-- oh, wait. Never mind.
Anyway, Hound goes on about doing "whatever is necessary to save them and put this right". Ominous.
So yeah, as I said, this was a fun way to recap the story. We got three new characters introduced, plus more of a fourth who was only just recently introduced, and we got a good sense of their dynamic, along with some potential breadcrumbs on this whole Cyberworld thing. And also as I said, I prefer this to a regular clip show.
Gotta admit, though, I was not expecting Ultra Magnus. Rather, I thought we'd see Optimus Primal instead. Not disappointed (except that we still haven't seen Primal yet), just surprised.
So, what did you think? Catch anything I didn't? Feel free to talk about this episode here, or the series as a whole over in the "Transformers CyberWorld: Spoopy Ocean Times" thread in our forums!
