Transformers: Galactic Trials is not a bad idea at all – in fact, it’s a pretty good one. This is an arcade racing game where you’re occasionally required to transform into your chosen character’s robot form in order to work through simple shooting galleries. In principle, it has all of the elements you’d expect from the iconic 80s franchise. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
There’s no real need for a narrative setup, but the game gives it a go with a static animated intro scene: Nemesis Prime has stolen a fistful of ancient relics, and now the Autobots and Decepticons are in a race to collect them all. In reality, with several characters to choose from – including favourites like Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Soundwave – you’ll often find yourself competing against heroes from your own faction, but we’ll just turn a blind eye to that oversight.
There are three difficulty settings, and you can choose to compete in Mario Kart-style championships or the default Galactic Trials mode. This sees you unlocking and equipping random Relics a little bit like a roguelite, buffing your capabilities. You can also obtain new weapons, and completing various in-game feats unlocks new characters, courses, and more.
But it’s all a bit of a grind because there’s nowhere near enough variety here to encourage you to play through the number of times required to unlock everything. Moreover, the gameplay is pretty poor overall: the vehicle handling feels laggy and there’s no real sense of speed. This latter issue is accentuated by the on-foot segments, which are slow and devolve into battles of attrition, often giving players in last place a big advantage.
It’s a shame it doesn’t really come together because, as we noted at the start of the review, there’s actually the glimmer of a good idea here. If the shooting sequences were better executed and the car handling better honed, you could end up with an interesting alternative take on the arcade racer that serves its license well. But while there’s some reasonable presentation on display, the package doesn’t deliver on its ambition at all.