As most Transformers fans are familiar with, the franchise goes through a refresh every three years in an effort to attract new fans. 2022 saw the launch of the most recent incarnation, Transformers: EarthSpark, on Paramount+, which follows the batch release format and completed its first Season last year, with a second on the way as of this writing. As someone who has been watching it in an effort to stay current with the TV side of the franchise as much as possible, I so far don’t find it to be on the same level as Prime or Animated in terms of story, but I think it has some great animation and interesting ideas, such as the concept of the Terrans and the Season 1 antagonist Mandroid, and I’m at least curious to see what the second season will bring (that said, the Season 1 ending was a little rough).
Last year, a video game based on the cartoon was also announced called Transformers: EarthSpark – Expedition (Expedition), which caught my interest due to being what seemed more like the sort of Transformers console gaming experience I been wanting since Fall of Cybertron, though I had already tempered my expectations due to it being a family-oriented game published by Outright Games. Said expectations were met just by glancing at gameplay on display at Comic-Con that year, but I still wanted to experience it myself, eventually getting it on sale for Black Friday after it came out later in the year. Despite a PS5 version having been announced, I could not find any evidence of its availability in the US, which led me to get the PS4 version with a free PS5 upgrade. While the game did meet my already tempered expectations, I feel like it could still have been better.
