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Autobots
Optimus Prime
Autobots, roll out!
- Voiced by: Peter Cullen
As the heroic leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime leads his men in a crusade against the evil Decepticons. His Ultimate Ability is the "Ultimate Impact" which should be called the Punch of Kill Everything or Power Geyser, while his special move calls his trailer and slams everyone in its reach. Notably the only playable character who can utilize almost every weapon in the game.
- Adaptational Badass: In both the cartoon and comics, Optimus usually needed help when taking down either Devastator or Menasor. Here, he can beat either of them by himself.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Optimus isn't as stoic here as he is usually depicted, and is a tad more expressive, uses more simplistic and informal language (including contractions more often than not), and shows signs of being both a Deadpan Snarker and even a Blood Knight at times, calmly cracking jokes at Decepticons' expense and seeming to enjoy combating a massive swarm of Insecticons at once respectively, for instance. This is truer to his characterization in the cartoon's first two seasons, where he had a casual streak and often joked around in his down time.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's the leader of the Autobots for a reason.
- Big Badass Rig: But of course.
- Diving Kick: Performs this as a vehicle attack.
- Gentle Giant: He's huge like most Autobots and cares deeply about humanity.
- Hammerspace: He can summon his trailer from one for a little extra range during one of his vehicle attacks.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: Has to fight off Megatron alone at the end in outer space as while the other Autobots still on Earth's soil can only wait and hope for him to triumph.
- The Leader: As expected, he is the leader of the Autobots - though in the final level whoever the Autobot the player picked gets to be the one pulling along the others.
- Legacy Character: Alpha Trion gave him the Matrix which made him a Prime.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's the second tallest playable character next to Grimlock, but is comparable to his men in terms of speed and agility.
- Jack of All Stats: The most balanced of the five Autobots. Not as strong as Grimlock, smart as Wheeljack, nor as fast as either Sideswipe or Bumblebee, but his well-rounded stats makes him a powerful fighter, especially given he has the most T.E.C.H. (read: passive buff) slots.
Bumblebee
Ready, ready, ready!
- Voiced by: Dan Gilvezan
One of the smallest and weakest Autobots, but with a wisecracking personality to match. He doesn't deal a lot of damage, but he's a crafty fighter whose small stature gives him a quickness that's unmatched by the other Autobots. His Ultimate Ability is "Take Cover", tossing a CRAP ton of grenades and then jumping around, covering his "ears". His special move is a slide or dash which does Scratch Damage but allows him to duck under or hop over enemies, setting him up for a powerful double-handed hammer strike to the back.
- Adaptational Badass: He's usually just the Comic Relief, Kid-Appeal Character in the cartoon. In this game, he can take down Megatron (not to mention frickin' Devastator AND Menasor. At the same time) just as easily as Prime or Grimlock and is the most combo-centric character in the game.
- Deadpan Snarker: He gives a few sarcastic quips, most notably when he remarks about the sheer coincidence that the Proudstar ended up on Earth just like the Ark did. He also mouths off the Decepticons a lot.
- Fragile Speedster: He can move very fast, but can't take as much damage than the other Autobots.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: His default weapon is just him using his fists in battle like a boxer.
- Hurricane Kick: One of his attacks is stylized after the Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku itself.
- Shotoclone: While every Autobot is like this to an extent, him most so because one of his attacks IS the actual Hurricane Kick.
- The Smart Guy: If Wheeljack is occupied, usually Bumblebee fills in his shoes on technical tasks.
Sideswipe
Megatron. 'Bot-o-'Bot. It's about time.
- Voiced by: Michael Bell
A bit of a jock, Sideswipe most craves a glorious fight to the finish as a test of his mettle. He doesn't play by the rules, and is not above using a few underhanded tactics. When it comes to strength, he falls in between the middle area, but dual-wields swords. His Ultimate Ability is "Launcher Barrage", where he showers his opponents with the missiles on his shoulder; while his special move is a dash (more of a Flash Step).
- Combat Pragmatist: Stated to be so by his bio, though the other characters fight no differently from him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Virtually everything he says is snark.
- Dual Wielding: His starting weapons are a pair of silver swords similar to the ones used by his G2 Masterpiece toy.
- Flash Step/Speed Echoes: What his special move allows him to do, in addition to leaving a trail of afterimage behind.
- Fragile Speedster: Only Bumblebee and Wheeljack fall behind him in terms of melee strength, and his defenses pale in comparison to Optimus and Grimlock. That said, he has the fastest vehicle mode, and his special ability means he's technically the fastest Autobot on foot.
- In-Series Nickname: Raging Bull, referring to his speed, being red and his bull-like attitude.
- The Lancer: He thoroughly enjoys laying the violence on the Decepticons, even has the courage to call Devastator merely a "worthy opponent". He only expresses concern when Menasor arrives to back up a half-beaten Devastator.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's fast and fairly strong, capable of closing the distance VERY quickly and kick some Decepticon tail with ease.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Downplayed. His Super Move only fires one at a time, but he does it so quickly, that it's ridiculous. Especially if you consider the slow-down effect you get when the Ultimate is triggered where everything else freezes and then all the explosions happen at the end.
Wheeljack
Fascinating, let me see!
- Voiced by: Christopher Swindle
The Autobots resident scientist, Wheeljack isn't much different from his TV self, spouting technobabble and advising on matters of repairs and technology. He is also the one to handle the development of T.E.C.H. and can develop new tactics in his lab. Somehow. He isn't the strongest or fastest but he's good with a blaster and can build his way out of trouble. Literally. His Ultimate Ability is called "Astonishing!" where he constructs a device that can either freeze every enemy on screen and deal minor damage, or true to his G1 bio where his stuff is hazard to at least everyone around him, he throws the device and it explodes violently.
- Adaptational Badass: For gameplay purposes, he can kick Megatron's ass, Devastator's ass, and everyone in between.note
- Break the Cutie: He doesn't take it well when Teletraan Alpha predicts his death.
- Good with Numbers: He tends to give out precise calculations on success rates for his projects, even during the Character Menu when you're about to select him.
- Glass Cannon: Has the highest range stat out of any playable character, but also the poorest defense. Fortunately, he has a shield to make up for it.
- Badass Bookworm: He's a scientist, but has no problem with getting his hands dirty like his teammates.Wheeljack: Don't mess with the geek!
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: He can create a shield, much like the kind certain enemies use, that can stop any incoming attack in front of him, while he's free to blast them at range. Said incoming attacks will be automatically parried, staggering the aggressor, leaving them open to a well-placed headshot.
- The Smart Guy: He's the smartest of the five Autobots, and is the one who helps design their gears and equipment. He's even the one who built Grimlock on Earth in the G1 cartoon.
- Universal Ammunition: Wheeljack's vehicle attack involves firing cannons at the enemy. One advantage to this is the cannons don't require reloading like the other weapons.
- Wrench Whack: His default starting weapons are a pair of dual wrenches.
Grimlock
Me Grimlock BADASS!
- "Megatron has Ferro-taxi!"
Voiced by: Gregg Berger
The Dinobot Commander and the biggest and slowest of the playable Autobots, Grimlock here follows the story that the High Moon Games didn't. Instead of a formerly intelligent military commander experimented on by Shockwave, here he was built by Wheeljack, who wanted to make the Dinobots like real dinosaurs and dumb as stumps. But Grimlock no care. He kick butt! His Ultimate Ability is "Grimlock Burn!" where he lets loose a massive fireball that explodes violently and his special move is the "T-Rex Toss", where he charges an enemy and if he gets ahold, he will plant them face first in the ground and run around, ending in a leaping slam.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the G1 continuity, Grimlock hated Optimus out of arrogance and wanted himself and the Dinobots to go their own way even if they did work together on many missions. In Devastation, Grimlock is on cordial terms with Optimus and is very loyal to him.
- All There in the Manual: His bio in the Ark subscribes to the storyline that he was created by Wheeljack.
- Artificial Cybertronian: And as a result, Teletraan Alpha can't properly predict his future. Not that Grimlock cares.
- The Big Guy: The biggest and strongest of the five playable Autobots. Which is ironic as he's also the most childish and least mature of the Autobots.
- Breath Weapon: His T. Rex alt mode can breathe fire.
- Difficult, but Awesome: He lacks the same mobility as the other characters, has a slower fighting style, and has a heavy emphasis on grappling the opponent. Once you get past the learning curve and get a good loadout, Grimlock is a very powerful character that's almost unstoppable against teams of Decepticons.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: He can breathe fire like western-style dragons do. And he can do it as long as he damn wants. It just has pitiful range.
- Dumb Muscle: He's very strong, but not very bright.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: The first melee weapon he starts out with. Which is weird, because he canonically has a towering flaming sword, though it's a rare drop in the game. Oh is it glorious.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Grimlock stated that he enjoys eating Decepticons for lunch.
- Manchild: He speaks sentences that are grammatically incorrect, whines like an infant when he couldn't get past a lockgate in Chapter 1, and barks back at Teletraan Alpha to stop helping him on fighting the Insecticons.
- Mighty Glacier: He's the slowest of the five autobots, lacks a rush combo, and can't wield ranged weapons such as pistols, rifles, or machine guns. Grimlock makes up for with high defense, plenty of power, and can perform a huge repertoire of grappling moves. His dino mode, while fast with tapping the action button while running or boosting, loses all momentum when dodging.
- One-Man Army: Has to serve as this even against Devastator because as he lampshaded, the other Dinobots aren't in the game.
- Super-Strength: He's pretty capable of kicking Decepticon ass. He's also the only Autobot who can emulate Blitzwing and Megatron's "choke and wipe you with the ground" attack.
- Universal Ammunition: One advantage of choosing him is that his T-rex mode doesn't run out of fire breath.
- Use Your Head: Grimlock can headbutt opponents - this is perhaps his most powerful attack move.
- Weak Sauce Weakness: The evil clone of him you encounter in Challenge maps has zero protection against Soundwave's loudspeaker and cannot adapt to it, although only in his dino mode. Giving him a dose every few hits leaves him completely defenseless.
- Wrestler in All of Us: He incorporates a few wrestling moves into his fighting style, even while in dinosaur mode.
Teletraan I
- Voiced by: Jim Ward
- Benevolent A.I.: Kind of a given for an Autobot supercomputer.
- Expositron 9000: He reads a few log entries about Cybertronian history (such as who Nova Prime is) and technology (what a Space Bridge is) for the players while also keeping the Autobots up to date with everything.
- Legacy Character: He's just the latest in the line of Teletraan supercomputers.
Defensor
- "Protect and serve, Optimus. That's our job."
Voiced by: Steve Blum
- The Cameo: Only appears briefly on Teletraan-1's monitor in the game's ending.
- Story-Breaker Power: Since he's a combiner, if he and/or Superion were actively involved in the game's story, the conflict could have ended a lot sooner.
Superion
- "Like Defensor, we're here to help, too. You don't have to do this alone."
Voiced by: Jamieson Price
- The Cameo: His only appearance in the entire game is a brief appearance on Teletraan-1's monitor in the game's ending with Defensor.
- Story-Breaker Power: Due to being a combiner, the game's conflict could have ended a lot sooner if he and Defensor were actually involved in the story.
Decepticons
Megatron
Less talk, Autobot, more dying.
- Voiced by: Frank Welker
- Arch-Enemy: To Optimus. While all the Autobots hate Megatron, Optimus especially hates him and expresses his intent to take down Megatron numerous times.
- BFG: His Fusion Cannon, of course.
- Big Bad: As to be expected, he is the main antagonist. He attempts to use the Ferrotaxis to cyberform Earth, with only Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Wheeljack, and Grimlock standing in his way.
- Car Fu: Arguably more impressive than the Autobots, who are (presumably) relatively lightweight cars. He gets to performing very rapid spinning strikes and "body" slams while in tank form.
- Composite Character: Based primarily on the G1 incarnation, but uses a tank alt-mode, ala Combiner Wars. He also has a few shades of his Prime counterpart, namely his more restrained voice and Deadpan Snarker tendencies.
- Didn't See That Coming: He did not expect Optimus would be willing to destroy the Ferrotaxis to save Earth.Megatron: (realising what Optimus is about to do) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
[Optimus shoots the Ferrotaxis, destroying it and the Insecticons go down]
Megatron: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!
Optimus: The humans will decide their own fate. - Epic Flail: Wields his iconic Energon Flail as part of his move set.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's legitimately confused as to why the Autobots (particularly Optimus) would risk life and limb to protect a planet that's not their own and populated by tiny, primitive, short lived creatures when they could be helping him save Cybertron. This comes back to bite him when he poses a Sadistic Choice to Optimus by modifying the Cyberforming protocols of the Ferrotaxis; It will only stop when the Ferrotaxis is destroyed, and with it all of Cybertron's lost culture from before the war. When Optimus does in fact destroy it, Megatron is genuinely dismayed and unable to comprehend how or why Optimus would actually go through with it.
- Fantastic Racism: "Flesh isn't life."
- Final Boss: Due to being the Big Bad, and is super beefed up thanks to the Ferrotaxis.
- Flash Step: Which strangely resembles a certain demonic fighter...
- Flight: Like the cartoon, he can fly and levitate without any visible signs of propulsion. Before the final battle, he used this to catch up to Optimus to prevent him from destroying the Ferrotaxis, and brought their fight into outer space.
- Incendiary Exponent: He's capable of creating eruptions that appear like pillars of lava and fire by shooting his Fusion Cannon into the ground. Remarkably similar to another final boss from PlatinumGames.
- I Shall Taunt You: After landing a particularly nasty grapple, he'll take the time to actively laugh at you.
- Lightning Bruiser: He can hit hard, take a lot of damage, and is surprisingly fast. Even to the point he can perform his own version Sideswipe's Flash Step ability.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: He is usually seen with a shield which deflects pretty much all attacks. When you unlock his Fusion Cannon, actively aiming with it will call up the same shield. It's very useful.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He constantly claims that he wants to revive Cybertron at the cost of humanity's existence, pretending it to be a noble reason. However, he outright rejects any alternate solutions suggested by Optimus that would not require humanity's death, shows no concern for his fellow Decepticons' lives (not even Soundwave's), and during the final fight in space, he outright admits his motives are purely ulterior.Megatron: You're defending by-product at best! I will restore Cybertron and retake the galaxy!
- Power of the Void: His Fusion Cannon is powered by a black hole, and he can summon them to suck in objects and the player before releasing it outward as a Sphere of Destruction.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Like his G1 counterpart, he acts like an angry spoiled child such as when he starts blaming Soundwave for the Sentry-Bot's failure to tackle the Autobots (when the Sentry-Bot was his idea in the first place). And when the Autobots beat him in the final battle on the Earth's surface, he fires the Ferrotaxis into space declaring "If I can't have the Ferrotaxis, no one can!". Optimus gives chase and Megatron follows, only to get his ass kicked a second time then throw a tantrum over Optimus blowing up the Ferrotaxis.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: His hits are very swift, when his health is low enough in the first part of the final boss fight. He will engage in a Pummel Duel with his opponent.
- Recurring Boss: He is fought a few times before the final battle against him.
- Tank Goodness: Instead of a gun, his alt mode here is now a tank.
- Vocal Evolution: His voice is based upon the screechier G1 voice, but is also dialed down to be much quieter, sometimes sounding close to the Prime incarnation of the character.
- What Measure Is A Non-Cybertronian?: He does not perceive humans as a form of life that has any value, since his entire existence is based on life coming from "Servos, gyros and fuel." The human equivalent to how he views his actions would be deforestation to build a housing development.
- Wipe the Floor with You: Has a grapple attack similar to Grimlock and Blitzwing, where he grabs you by the head and drags you through the dirt. However, instead of slamming you back into the ground afterwords, he throws you in the air and blasts you, point blank in the face, with his fusion cannon. For added insult to the injury, Megatron triumphantly laughs after sending his opponent flying.
Starscream
More of a Starsqueak.
- "I've long waited the day I can fight you all myself. Prove my worth to Megatron!"
Voiced by: Scott Whyte
- Butt-Monkey: Many bad things happen to Starscream. He constantly gets mocked and trashtalked by everyone, gets left with the dirtiest jobs, and even crashlands when failing to deliver the Plasma Core.
- Continuity Nod: One of his attacks stuns your character for a few seconds after taking a direct hit, a subtle reference to his signature Null-Ray.
- Diving Kick: One of his aerial attacks, which is enough to knock Grimlock off his feet.
- Flight: He is capable of flying.
- Fragile Speedster: He's rather easy to beat up in close quarters combat, but the speed of his jet form and array of firepower will make it difficult for players to keep up with him.
- Hated by All: Both the Autobots and Decepticons have a universally negative opinion of Starscream.
- Interface Screw: His rematch within the Space Bridge gives him a homefield advantage in the form of the camera angle not being consistent with the floor elevation, meaning his already fast movements become even more disorienting to keep track of.
- Macross Missile Massacre: He can fire many homing missiles at once, and unlike Sideswipe, he can unleash several at the same time. Most notably he will launch either a swarm from his chest, or a single missile which will split into many more smaller ones.
- Magic Knight: He utilizes melee attacks alongside his range weaponry.
- Motor Mouth: He endlessly talks during your encounter with him, with the Autobots denigrating that he puts more effort into talking than fighting. Just makes them want to beat him up faster and harder.
- No-Respect Guy: Everyone mocks and looks down on him; even Optimus gets in on making fun of him in their fight with each other. Plus, Megatron gives no recognition to Starscream for trying to bring the Plasma Core back to him.Optimus Prime: Megatron was right. You really are useless, Starscream.
- Ramming Always Works: One of his attacks has him attempt to charge at the player while in jet mode and spinning rapidly.
- Recurring Boss: He is fought twice in the game.
- The Starscream: Downplayed; he never attempts to usurp or undermine Megatron over the course of the game, and instead seems more concerned with gaining his leader's approval. However, in a cutscene where Megatron leaves him behind to "hinder them with [his] incompetence", Starscream states that they will see who will be laughing last. Also, one of his quotes has him proclaim "I'm the new leader of the Decepticons!" And Skywarp pokes fun at him by paraphrasing his quote. And finally, one of the data tablets is written from his P.O.V., and he does claim he plots taking over Megatron's position.
Soundwave
Operation: Obliteration.
- Voiced by: Frank Welker
- Creepy Monotone: Speaks in a creepy emotionless voice, with the classic synthesizer filter effect.
- Field Power Effect: All of his fights take place in a hexagon-grid battlefield that Soundwave can remotely control, giving him the field-point advantage. It aids him little in the end.
- Flight: Like all Decepticons, he can fly without any apparent reason given.
- Flunky Boss: During his boss fights, he is assisted by his cassette minions Laserbeak, Ravage, Buzzsaw, Rumble, and Frenzy, who all have way less health than he does.
- Gale-Force Sound: Somehow, his sound blasts are capable of sending even Grimlock flying.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: The first time he's fought, Megatron orders him to fall back to help him out with something important. The Autobot the player selected would express anger at Soundwave leaving and not getting to finish the battle.
- Recurring Boss: He is fought twice.
- Sonic Stunner: He uses sound attacks which are faster than his other projectiles and have decent range. This is trump card to control the battlefield the second he fights the Autobots.
- The Stoic: As per tradition, he is the most robotic and emotionless of all Transformers.
- Undying Loyalty: Utterly loyal to Megatron, as always.
Devastator
Prepare to be crushed, Autobot!
- Voiced by: Dave Boat
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His height is consistently listed as at least a hundred feet tall. It's even more jarring where the component Constructicons, that form his limbs and body, should be at least around the height of Optimus, if only slightly larger. But when in full Devastator form, a single limb is many times your height. So it's Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever to the scale where that thing to a human is a combiner to an already thirty odd foot robot.
- Bash Brothers: With Menasor in the final mission. Have fun with that.
- The Brute: He's a huge and aggressive individual.
- Combining Mecha: Is the combined form of all the Constructicons.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Can create small mountains of earth by stomping his foot on the ground, and smash them apart with a single blow.
- Dual Boss: His last boss fight has him summon Menasor's help when he's low on health.
- The Dreaded: The Autobots express fear upon encountering him.. except Sideswipe, who calls him a Worthy Opponent.
- Giant Foot of Stomping: Naturally one of his attack moves.
- Humongous Mecha: He's a giant even among other Transformers.
- I'll Kill You!: He constantly screams variants of these as you battle him such as, "PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!", "I'LL CRUSH YOU!" and "THIS IS YOUR END!"
- Recurring Boss: He is fought more than once.Megatron: Devastator! You are needed elsewhere! The others can finish the Autobots!
Devastator: Another time, Autobots. - Super-Strength: He can easily desecrate the whole battlefield without even trying and toss around Autobots like they are rag-dolls.
- This Is a Drill: Pulls out two drills when reduced to half of his health. That he can fire as missiles.
- Undying Loyalty: To Megatron, since he was programmed to against his will by the Robo-Smasher.Devastator: (engaging the Autobots) "All hail Megatron!"
- Warm-Up Boss: He's the first boss you encounter in Devastation, though he is not to be taken lightly.
The Constructicons
- "You're mine, Auto-jerk!"
Voiced by: Michael Bell (Scrapper), Jamieson Price (Hook, Mixmaster), André Sogliuzzo (Scavenger), Steve Blum (Bonecrusher), Gregg Berger (Long Haul)
- Acid Attack: Mixmaster inflicts big puddles of green acid: they can slow you down and drain your health. This makes Mixmaster and Bonecrusher the two most dangerous Constructicons.
- Combining Mecha: They are the individual components of Devastator.
- Dig Attack: Bonecrusher will create huge holes in the ground which if you fall in will cost you health and time and pursue you underground.
- Drill Tank: Bonecrusher is this. And he fires his drills at you, which you can parry and throw back at him or his comrades.
- Dual Boss: They are all fought in pairs during their first encounters.
- Recurring Boss: In addition to getting a few boss fights as Devastator, the Constructicons are also faced in battle as pairs of two. They are ecstatic to battle the Autobots, but Megatron instructs them to work on the construction of his cyber-forming project instead, confident the others can take down the Autobots.
- This Is a Drill: Bonecrusher uses drills as weapons.
- Wolfpack Boss: The final level has the player face all of them at once before they form Devastator for his last fight.
Blitzwing
Not to be confused with Blitzcrank.
- "I'm going feed you your own spark, Autobot!"
Voiced by: Dave Boat
- Adaptational Badass: Blitzwing generally isn't depicted as much of a threat by himself, standing out little from the standard Decepticon. Here, he's fast, durable and an excellent fighter who can give the likes of Optimus Prime and Grimlock a run for their money.
- An Ice Person: He can use missiles that freeze an Autobot solid, from which they have to break their way out.
- The Brute: Blitzwing is an aggressive, simple-minded thug who's one of the strongest and largest Decepticons.
- Composite Character: Is based on his G1 version, but also has the powers of his Transformers: Animated counterpart. Just without the split-personality disorder - though his dialogue can pass off as Hothead material.
- Elemental Powers: Wields both fire and ice, in his tank and jet modes, respectively.
- Evil Is Bigger: He's one of the tallest non-combiner characters in the game, standing over even Grimlock.
- Flunky Boss: One of his battles has him accompanied by Decepticon Mooks.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: He fights barehanded in his robot mode but in vehicle modes (that's right, plural) he has an unlimited supply of ammo to throw at you.
- High-Speed Battle: The first phase of his boss fight involves the player fighting him while riding across the bridge, all while Blitzwing shifts between the jet and tank modes while fighting Autobots.
- Immune to Flinching: Almost no attack you do can make him stagger.
- Lightning Bruiser: Has the speed and agility of a jet as well as the strength and durability of a tank.
- No Indoor Voice: All of his dialogue involves him screaming and yelling.
- Playing with Fire: His tank form projects flame.
- Recurring Boss: He is fought more than once. The second time though he comes with an army!
- Tank Goodness: He has a tank mode (in addition to fighter jet mode) and can fire at you twice with tank shells forcing you to dodge them or grab the shells and hurl them back.
- Wipe the Floor with You: He occasionally uses Grimlock's special, where he charges you and if he grabs hold, he'll take you for a nice relaxing run through the meadow. With your face in the ground. And then he'll finish it off with a slam. He also pulls spinning swipes and charges you or "body" slams in tank mode.
Motormaster
I'm King of the Road!
- "Last one there's the corroded diode, Autobots!"
Voiced by: Liam O'Brien
- Artificial Cybertronian: The Stunticons were created by the Decepticons as an attempt to counteract the Autobot's terrain advantage on the ground. Or for those who read the comic books, it's to counteract the Autobots' attempts to counteract the Decepticon's aerial superiority by building the Aerialbots.
- Battle in the Rain: His boss fight takes place within a rainstorm, where lightning can be seen in the background.
- Composite Character: Obviously the cartoon version, but has the alt-mode of his Combiner Wars counterpart.
- Evil Counterpart: To Optimus, both being Cybertronians with a truck alt-mode and being the leading character of four other Transformers associated with them. Other than that, they really don't have much in common. He's no Nemesis Prime, though.
- Flunky Boss: His rematch in the final level has him accompanied by regular enemies.
- Lightning Bruiser: He hits like a truck, and is just as quick as one.
- Recurring Boss: He is fought twice (three times if you count the race against him, during which it is possible to beat him until his health runs and advance to the mission goal before he respawns).
- Shock and Awe: He wields an electrified sword, which can be powered up by natural lightning.
- Sizeshifter: Somehow grows up to several times his size when he and the Stunticons form Menasor. An allusion to the Sunbow cartoon where Menasor is often designed to just look like Motormaster with a different head and having cars attached to his limbs.
- Super Mode: In a way, Menasor is this to him, since he forms the main body, and all of other Stunticons are mere Satellite Characters in this game.
- Sword Beam: Fires streaks or beams of electricity out from his sword should he desire ranged combat.
Menasor
Not to be confused with Voltron.
- "You beat Motormaster. Now see if you can beat ME!"
Voiced by: James Arnold Taylor
- Adaptational Wimp: In both the cartoons and comics, Menasor is so powerful that it takes a team of Autobots or another Combiner to take him down. Here, he loses twice to just the main five, even when teaming up with Devastator.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Is about as tall as Devastator. Except he's faster and can pull a larger variety of combat moves.
- Ax-Crazy: He carries an electric sword as his primary weapon against the Autobots, and doesn't react well when the Autobots beat him in battle.
- Bash Brothers: With Devastator in the final mission. Have fun with that.
- BFS: In comparison to himself, his sword is about average size, but to anyone else, it's a giant piece of sharp, electrified metal.
- Blow You Away: Can emit lightning bolts to send the Autobots flying (unless they dodge in time) and creates a cyclone where it picks up the Autobots into the air for Menasor to get a free shot at them. Or rather, for them to get one at him.
- Combat Pragmatist: He wields a sword for most of his fight, but is not afraid of just pulling out a gun to shoot you instead if you linger out of its range for too long.
- Combining Mecha: Is the combined form of the Stunticons.
- Composite Character: Has the appearance of his Combiner Wars portrayal, but wields the weapons his cartoon and toy versions have.
- Determinator: Even after the Autobots cripple him in battle badly to the point he has no strength left to fight, he proceeds to hurl the Plasma Core right to Megatron rather than collapse or retreat.Bumblebee: I did not see that coming.
- The Dreaded: Menasor's presence alone is intimidating enough to get Optimus freeze up and stare in fear.
- Dual Boss: He is fought alongside Devastator in the final level when Devastator summons him after going down to only 50% on health.
- Hammerspace: Sometimes pulls out a gun to shoot with during his boss fights.
- Impossibly Graceful Giant: Despite being about the size of Devastator, he's surprisingly much quicker on his feet.
- Lightning Bruiser: Very fast, much like Motormaster despite getting much larger, he is also much more powerful.
- Living Prop: Almost literally. The other Stunticons besides Motormaster only appear to form Menasor. They do not even transform into their individual robot modes.
- One to Million to One: He has an attack that allows him to separate himself to his five Stunticon components, drive around, and then recombine once again.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Whines and complains like a child having a temper tantrum after the Autobots beat him.
- Recurring Boss: He is fought twice.
- Sore Loser: He doesn't take it well when the Autobots beat him the first time, throwing a temper tantrum and throwing the Plasma Core over to the Decepticons.Menasor: UGGGGRAAAAAAAAA!!!!! NO ONE DEFEATS MENASOR!!!!! GGUUUEEEAAAEEAAAAHH!!!!!
- Shock and Awe: A power he inherited from Motormaster.
- Sword Beam: Same as Motormaster, only his are much bigger and more powerful.
- Tornado Move: Is able to summon a cyclone with his sword.
Shockwave
Welcome to Cybertron.
- "We will control the Plasma Energy! And once we do, the Plasma Core will save Cybertron, not doom it."
Voiced by: Darryl Kurylo
- Adaptational Badass: This version of Shockwave is much more combat oriented than any other versions.
- Energy Weapon: His main form of attack, of course. With orbs that focus it and redirect it to form a dynamic arena.
- Evil Genius: The evil counterpart to Wheeljack, as he is Megatron's chief scientist/engineer.
- Flunky Boss: During his boss fight, he creates weaker clones of himself to try and overwhelm the player. The fact those duplicates are black may be a nod to his Animated counterpart's disguise.
- Light 'em Up: He can canonically fire energy beams made out of any light in the electromagnetic spectrum. Want to get rid of those beams? Pull out the Grappling Hook and aim it at Shockwave, provided it's safe to do so.
- Mad Scientist: The Autobots call him mad for his effort to manipulate and control plasma energy. Shockwave retorts that his scientific work shall save not doom Cybertron.
- Me's a Crowd: Related to Self-Duplication, he uses clones of himself as his own personal army against the player. It almost counts as a Shell Game except the real Shockwave is purple and the clones are black.
- Self-Duplication: He clones himself during his boss fight.
- Tranquil Fury: He's very stoic, even when he's clearly been angered to the point of potentially excessive force.
- Villain Has a Point: The Autobots argue to Shockwave that he cannot control plasma energy. To prove them wrong, Shockwave transforms into gun mode and shoots out giant zigzagging laser beams of plasma energy.
- Undying Loyalty: According to databank about him, he's very dedicated to logic and Megatron.
Thundercracker
- "My loyalty only goes so far. Tampering with plasma energy? That's madness."
Voiced by: André Sogliuzzo
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Zigzagged. Optimus tried to lecture Thundercracker about this trope, but the latter refuses instead settling on giving the Autobots information they need after they defeat him because he thinks Megatron is going too far with plasma energy.
- Dual Boss: His second battle has him fought alongside Skywarp.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He lampshades this in the above quote.
- Meaningful Name: Bumblebee notes "No wonder they call you Thundercracker" when he squeals about where to get the core of plasma energy.
- Noble Demon: When he's beaten, he yields fairly easily because he knows Megatron's plan is absurdly reckless and could kill all of them if not stopped.
- Redemption Rejection: Downplayed; after he's beaten the first time, Optimus offers him the chance to join the Autobots. He doesn't accept, but he does provide the Autobots with key information they need to stop Megatron's plan because he recognizes how dangerous it is. Sure enough, he's later found guarding the final stretch to Megatron alongside Skywarp, and he doesn't particularly hold back.
- Recurring Boss: He is battled twice.
- Token Good Teammate: Somewhat, given his views of Megatron tampering with plasma energy. He even helps the Autobots with their desired information. This trope also corresponds to IDW's first take on Thundercracker.
Skywarp
- "Starscream failed. Guess that makes me the new leader of the Decepticons! ...Anyone else want this job?"
Voiced by: Scott Whyte
- Dual Boss: He is fought alongside Thundercracker during the latter's second fight.
- Dumb Muscle: He's not particularly known for being a thinker compared to Starscream or Thundercracker. The moment he even thinks he has a position that involves mental effort, he immediately tries to pawn it off to someone else.
- Out of Focus: He's the least prominent of the Seeker trio, getting just a single line of dialogue and only being fought once, unlike Starscream and Thundercracker who each have two boss battles.
- Teleport Spam: True to his name, he's able to teleport while moving to throw you off.
Ground Soldiers
- Voiced by: Steve Blum, Darryl Kurylo, Jim Ward
- Canon Foreigner: Downplayed, as while they didn't appear anywhere prior to this game, they are based on pre-existing Decepticons and typically fit into the same division, primarily the Battlechargers.
- Elite Mook: Heavy Weapons Ground Soldiers are huge, tough and durable.
- Giant Mook: Heavy Weapons Ground Soldiers are too big for you to perform certain attacks on such as the Grappling Hook, the Vehicular mode drop or Grimlock's special ability of running them through the ground.
- The Goomba: Basic Ground Soldiers are the most common enemies, and are very easy to break.
- Mook Lieutenant: Sergeant Ground Soldiers are more advanced versions of Ground Soldiers and they appear as commanders of their armies.
- Palette Swap: Basic and Sergeant Ground Soldiers are based on the Battlechargers, Runamuck and Runabout, but they come in blue and gold rather than black and white, and have less distinctive headshapes. Heavy Ground Soldiers are more of a subversion, as while they're based on Blitzwing with different colors, they aren't' triple changers, and have had the jet portions of their body type removed.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Some Ground Soldiers wield shields, which protects them from attacks that aren't rush attacks or vehicle attacks.
- Tank Goodness: Heavy Weapons Ground Soldiers transform into tanks.
Seekers
- Airborne Mook: They are air-based enemies.
- Canon Foreigner: Downplayed. While the Seekers are the go-to design for padding out the Decepticon ranks, especially ones that are primarily purple, cases where they're consistently rendered using the "Conehead" helmet design are far and few between.
- Elite Mook: Both Heavy Weapons Seekers and Elite Seekers are stronger versions of regular Seekers.
- Fragile Flyer: The airborne Seeker variants have significantly lower health than the melee combat variant. The reason for this is because the player is meant to shoot down the airborne Seekers using their ranged weaponry (and in fact the airborne Seekers are introduced during the tutorial for said weaponry) and so they have less health to avoid becoming frustrating Demonic Spiders.
- The Goomba: Basic Seekers are the weakest and the most common airborne enemies.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Some Heavy Weapons Seekers wield shields, which protects them from attacks that aren't rush attacks or vehicle attacks.
The Insecticons
Robotic insects which can consume anything and transform surroundings to metal.- Giant Mook: Most of the Insecticons encountered in the game are regular enemies, but there are much larger versions of Skrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell that are faced as bosses or unique enemies.
- Harmless Enemy: In many levels, tiny versions of Insecticons appear as harmless critters. They do not attack and can be destroyed in one hit.
- King Mook: In Chapter 2, the player encounters huge versions of Skrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback, who are faced as bosses.
- Mooks: The majority of the Insections encountered in the game are regular enemies.
- Recurring Boss: The larger versions of Skrapnel and Bombshell are fought twice, their second battles being reinforcements during the battle with the giant version of Kickback.
- Shock and Awe: Skrapnel can call down lightning.
- The Voiceless: None of them talk. They do make inhuman hissing and chirruping noises. The boss versions do however make human-like grunts of pain and exertion.
Proudstar Crew
Nova Prime
The former leader of the Autobots, until a darkness heavily implied to be Unicron corrupted him, and made him into a power-hungry tyrant who ends up betraying the Autobots and his own ideals.- Adaptational Heroism: In the IDW comics, Nova was far from a good bot and looked down on races other than Transformers even before he gained power. But here, he was actually someone who inspired Optimus until he turned evil against his will.
- Broken Pedestal: To all of the Autobots, particularly Optimus (sans Grimlock, who likely didn't know about him since he was made on Earth).
- Canon Immigrant: Nova Prime first appeared in IDW Publishing's Generation One comics, which first came out long after the G1 cartoon ended. Because this game is said to take place sometime before the movie, this means that Devastation retroactively adds Nova Prime to the continuity of the original cartoon.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of the game due to his ship being seized by Megatron and the movie due to pointing Unicron in Cybertron's direction. Again, this was not by choice.
- Palette Swap: His model is based heavily on Motormaster's, with altered colours, a new head and wings.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes became red after he turns evil.
- Sequel Hook: Appears after the credits of the game, implying a sequel may happen. Especially with the appearance of two Autobot Combiners and blueprints to Optimus Maximus.
Jhiaxus
- Adaptational Heroism: In both G2 and IDW, he was an awful, racist dedicated to bringing about an empire of Cybertronians. Here? He was so inspired by Nova Prime that he even entertained the prospect of becoming an Autobot. Then Unicron showed up.
- Evil Counterpart: To Kranix. Both worked out what Unicron did to them but Kranix tried to fight it by reminding himself of who he was. Jhiaxus tried to solve it by cutting open his crew-mates to analyze what was happening.
- Mad Scientist: Became this as Unicron's influence corrupted the crew. After sabotaging the Proudstar, Kranix could only hope that Jhiaxus wouldn't be aware of the sabotage until it was too late, since he felt Jhiaxus was probably the only one who could've undone it.
- Posthumous Character:
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though he was performing acts of cruelty on his crew-mates, he was trying to find a way to overcome Unicron's influence.
Kranix
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Subverted. He writes that he plans to escape the Proudstar and head back to Lithone. While he makes it (and spends at least a few million years there), the planet will be destroyed by Unicron and Kranix himself will be killed by the Quintessons.
- Fantastic Racism: It's downplayed but he openly writes that he was disgusted by just looking at organic life. That said, he felt organics had as much a right to live as the Cybertronians and crashed the Proudstar to prevent more life from being extinguished.
- Heroic Willpower: It wasn't 100%, but he managed to resist Unicron.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: Back in the movie, he was thought to be a separate mechanical lifeform unrelated to Cybertron. Here he's established as being an ancient Cybertronian and Lithone itself as being a Cybertronian colony.
- Token Good Teammate: He was the nicest person on the Proudstar to the point that Unicron's influence barely had any effect on him.
Teletraan Alpha
- Voiced by: Jim Ward
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted. As he predates the Autobot/Decepticon war and the human race, he'll help whoever's in charge of the Proudstar and has no reason to believe that Megatron isn't trustworthy or that humans even qualify as alive.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: How he views the world is...odd. He acknowledges that Optimus has the Matrix and thus the Autobots are following the Prime but he'll still send drones after them on Megatron's orders and help cyberform the Earth.
- Flat Character: There isn't much to him aside from being the AI overseeing the Proudstar.
- Lost Technology: His data core is made of this giving him his more powerful abilities.
- Omniscient Database: While he didn't know Unicron's name, he knew that Unicron was the Chaos Bringer and would fall eventually.
- Seers: His processing power is so powerful that he can create algorithms that can predict the future. He's already foreseen the events of the movie.
- Super Prototype: Teletraan I isn't even shy in saying it. His console is also several times larger than Teletraan I's.
Spoiler
Unicron
An ancient deity dedicated to bringing about the end of everything through Cybertron's destruction. The Evil Counterpart and Evil Twin to Primus. The Proudstar made planetfall on his surface to restock which allowed him to corrupt them to varying degrees. When they left, Nova Prime pointed him in Primus' direction.- Composite Character: The game is set between Season 2 of the original cartoon and the movie. Season 3 establishes that Unicron was built at the dawn of time by an alien known as Primacron. In the game however, he's based more on his Marvel Comics portrayal. His corruption of Nova Prime also has purple imagery bringing to mind Dark Energon from his Prime counterpart.
- The Corrupter: To the Proudstar crew. The more distance they put between themselves and Primus, the more Unicron can influence them.
- Eldritch Abomination: Jhiaxus wrote that he could still feel Unicron watching them even though his physical body was light years away from the Proudstar.
- Evil Counterpart: To Primus.
- Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: As Optimus clarifies, Unicron isn't just bent on destruction but Cybertron's destruction.
- God of Evil: He's the Chaos Bringer and Teletraan Alpha even refers to his arrival as "the coming tide of chaos".
- Greater-Scope Villain: He corrupted the Proudstar crew which led to their cyberforming inhabited worlds.
- Made of Evil: Teletraan Alpha, Optimus Prime and the Matrix of Leadership seem pretty sure of this. The Matrix is so caught off-guard by hints of his darkness in the Proudstar, that it shuts down for a brief second.
- Mechanical Abomination: As a planet-sized and planet-devouring robotic fortress that's capable of transforming into a humanoid shape resembling the devil and bending lesser mechanoids to his will, he fits this bill quite well.
- No Name Given: At no point is his name mentioned but the hints about him are obvious.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Optimus mentions that he's currently following the trail of cyberformed planets back to Cybertron. He only qualifies as this because his name is never mentioned and the Cybertronians aren't quite sure what he is. Given that the game is between Season 2 and the movie, Unicron is at most twenty years away.
