Let’s Remember Some Good Transformers Games

Remember when Activision was publishing other games besides Call of Duty? Recall how, for a brief period of time, some of those other Activision games included Transformers: War for Cybertron and its sequel, Fall of Cybertron? I do, and it’s shame that in 2025 these cool sci-fi shooters aren’t easy to play anymore.

Earlier this week, a new Transformers game from Splash Damage was canceled. We didn’t know much about it, but based on what has leaked out and was rumored, it sounds like Transformers Reactivate was going to be the big, modern, AAA game the franchise deserves and hasn’t really gotten in many years. However, back in 2010, we did get just such a game.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is a third-person action shooter that lets you play through both sides of the civil war on the robotic planet of Cybertron. One campaign is focused on the Autobots and the other tells the story of the Decepticons. And don’t expect Earth or humans in this game, as it’s all about the bloody civil war that, eventually, leads to the fall of Cybertron (good name for a sequel) and the exodus of the Transformers.

War for Cybertron and its sequel, Fall of Cybertron, play like most other third-person action shooters of the day, complete with the Gears of War-inspired “Hold this button to look at something cool happening” feature. But that’s fine, because instead of boring soldiers shooting people, you get to play as giant transforming robots with silly names who use big guns to destroy other robots, and ayou can become a car or hover tank, too.

War and Fall both know that people want action and sci-fi nonsense in a Transformers game, make the right call in giving you plenty of that. Also, I hope you like different-colored metal corridors filled with nameless robot drones who you blast away over and over again, because that’s mostly what you do in these games. That may not sound great, but because it’s covered in Transformers lore, characters, and weirdness, it still ends up being a lot of fun. And unlike most other third-person corridor shooters of the era, you can transform into a car or a hover tank whenever you want. While in either form you can move faster and gain access to more powerful weapons. They truly are more than meets than eye.

What’s wild to me is that I’m not a Transformers fan and I still enjoyed going back and replaying War for Cybertron earlier this week. If you are a Transformers fan, I expect you’ll get even more out of all the characters and lore shoved into these action-packed shooters.

War for Cybertron deserves a second life

So how do you play War for Cybertron and its sequel in 2025? It ain’t easy. The games were pulled from digital storefronts years ago once Activision’s licensing deals expired, so you can’t just buy them on Steam. You can find used Xbox 360 copies floating around on eBay and other sites for under $30, but you’ll need an Xbox 360 console to play them, as none of the games are backward compatible.

There are other ways to find these games and play them on PC; perhaps you might check out some large archive of content on the internet. Once you get your PC version (I’m not asking how), you can use this tiny tool to unlock the framerate and play War for Cybertron at 120 FPS.

It’s a shame that Microsoft and Activision haven’t cut a deal with Hasbro to remaster or at the very least port these Transformers games to modern hardware so more people can play them. We know Hasbro wants these games made available again, so it seems like it comes down to Activision. The publisher claimed in 2023 that despite comments from Hasbro, it still had access to original code for the games. Over a year later, nothing has manifested and it’s still hard as heck to play these popular Transformers games. Which is a shame.

While we’ve continued to receive smaller Transformers games over the years, it’s been far too long since the last big-budget game based on the franchise hit store shelves. Hasbro and the other companies involved should work out a deal and get the Cybertron titles back on digital stores in 2025, giving Transformers fans who missed out a chance to play these fantastic games.

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