Transformers Legends (mobile game)

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Transformers Legends
All the grind and expense of shopping for toys, without any of the fun. (Or the toys.)
Developer	ngmoco
Publisher	Mobage
Platform	Android, iOS
Release date	December 13, 2012
End of service	October 6, 2015

Transformers Legends (rendered "TRANSFORMERS Legends" on the Play Store) was a multiplayer card-based battle game published by Mobage for mobile devices. Released for Android devices on December 13, 2012 and iOS devices on April 25, 2013, the game featured much of the early Generation 1 cast, although some later events mixed things up by featuring various alternate universes and storylines.

On June 10, 2015, Mobage announced the game would "sunset" (a nice way of saying shut down), with the servers eventually going offline on October 6. Older events were rerun, very buggy, but very generous with rewards, unlike when they were originally live.

Gameplay

The game functions as a simulation of a tabletop collectible card game. Players build a deck of Autobots and Decepticons to use in-game. New players are given a limited selection of "common" and "uncommon" cards, as well as a choice of six starting "Rare" cards (Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Mirage for Autobot fans, Ravage, Skywarp, and Thundercracker for Decepticons fans—the initial choice has no other effect on gameplay). More advanced cards are discovered in Mission mode, or via the Space Bridge feature (either by completing certain tasks or by paying for them). Complete decks are then used both in Battle mode and in Boss Battles during special in-game events.

Cards come in two types: character and weapon. Character cards are further subdivided into robot and alternate modes for each respective character. Each card may be leveled to a maximum point. Robot and alternate modes of the same character (e.g. "Common" Ratbat, "Ultra-Rare" Galvatron) may then be "Trans-Scanned" into a single, more powerful card that can then be leveled again to a maximum point ("MTM" in game terminology). Cards can be upgraded either using other cards, or with Transmetal; a common strategy for players with a lot of event cards was to use one of the free Space Bridges to get Rarity 1-3 cards and use them as materials, if Transmetal was short for them. Weapons may also be upgraded, and certain weapons are designated for specific characters (e.g. "Galvatron's Weapon"). While any character card may be paired with any weapon card, there are specific bonuses for matching weapons to characters of the same faction or other criteria, and a larger bonus for pairing named weapons with their specified character.

Missions

"Missions" are roughly equivalent to "story mode." Progress is made by clicking a "scan" button, which drains a little bit of Energon each time. A scan can have one of several results:

• The player is ambushed by an enemy (Swoop in the Decepticon campaign, Ramjet in the Autobot campaigns); The player must tap on the missiles they launch to intercept them and get credits; there is no penalty for being hit
• The player receives a Common or Uncommon card
• The player is given an opportunity for a "free" PVP battle, or
• The player is given an opportunity to win a Rare card.
• The player will encounter a boss for an episodic event; this encounter is optional

Each mission takes somewhere between 20 and 30 clicks to complete, and each click uses 10 points of Energon. The cards for each Mission are pre-determined by the game, and only a few Rare cards are available in Missions. Energon is refilled automatically when a player levels up, slowly over time, or can be refilled instantly via special items (i.e., by paying for it, or by earning them through events).

Battles

"Battles" are the game's version of player-versus-player combat. Combat is initiated by clicking on another player's name (potential opponents are pre-selected by the game), at which point combat is managed entirely by the game. Each combat uses one Battle Cube, which refill automatically when a player levels up, slowly over time, or can be refilled instantly via special items (i.e., by paying for it.)

Both Missions and Battles generate XP and credits that serve in-game functions: XP is used to level up the player (and recharge Energon and Battle Cubes), while credits are used in the card upgrade process.

Events

Transforms from slot machine to Skinner box and back again!

Events modify gameplay in two primary ways: by adding special themed cards with multiple bonuses for the current event, and by offering ways to participate in battles which earn points. At the end of the event, players are divided into tiers, with the highest-scoring players getting the most rewards. Raid cards, available through the space bridge, were initially only available via in-game purchases, but the ways and means of obtaining them have evolved, and they can be collected using medals earned in battles. Each event has an accompanying story, many of which are cribbed from the original The Transformers cartoon, though some have been based on IDW Publishing's comics, and many are original to the game. Together, these events form an interpretation of the G1 continuity.

All events revolved around the use of Battle Cubes, which were required to fight bosses and players. Cube refills were considered an absolute necessity to keep fighting and not be overtaken on the leaderboard. For some events, if the rewards weren't very good, players would, in a word, "hitch up their plows" and "farm" Battle Cubes for the next event, in hopes of there being better rewards (which there often were).

Raid events were the first event type. Bosses can be encountered by scanning in the Missions mode, at which point the player attacks them. Defeating a boss rewards players with energon for scanning, battle cubes, and various types of medals for the space bridge. Boss Battles also add limited multiplayer action—if a Boss is too difficult for a single player, they can opt to invite other users (again, selected by the game) to assist, with all participants receiving rewards. Starting with "Day of the Dinobots - Part 2", events ran for six days, with one starting the day after the prior event concluded. Bosses were leveled, with the higher-leveled ones being referred to as "whales" by players.

"Covert Operations" introduced campaign events, in which players must play through three campaigns of increasing difficulty, at the end of which they battle an episode-themed boss. Once a fight has been completed, the player can attempt to capture the card they have just defeated using Energon Nets or Energon Chains. The effectiveness of Energon Nets is random, while Energon Chains have a 100% capture rate, but are very hard to obtain (chains can be obtained through daily rewards, reaching a certain reward tier during the episode, or outright buying them with real money) whereas Energon Nets are abundant. "Enter the Nightbird" introduced "Advanced Operations", with the three highest levels of the last campaign being extra hard but rewarding the player with a more powerful card.

"The Omega Corps" was the first Player versus Player event. Scanning during missions gives the player the chance to enter a "player versus player" arena in which they battle a succession of other players, gaining more rewards depending on their victory streak, until their deck is defeated. By scoring, players also gain a named rank, which grants them a percentage attack bonus in all battles during the event and after it ends. Players didn't actually battle each other, instead fighting AI-controlled player decks by "feeding quarters to the machine" in the form of battle cubes. This event type was discontinued when Team Battles were introduced, leaving players at whatever rank they had achieved in the last PvP event, "Mockery of Justice".

Team Battle events were introduced with "Dark Cybertron". Players are assigned into teams and must scan for Synthetic Energon and bosses as with Raid events, but only members of the same team can hit a boss. Teams are matched up together, with the team with the most points at the end of a day winning, and the losing team disbanding to be reassigned for the next day.

Initially, the absolute only way to get event cards was to pay money to use the Event Space Bridge. Starting with "The Thin Blue Line", Ruby Medals were introduced, which allowed players access to tiered Ruby Metal Space Bridges that guaranteed an event card everytime. A loyalty program was introduced for Space Bridge use by way of Teletraan-1 chips, which could unlock various things from characters and weapons to materials.

Between April 2 and September 30, 2015, the game moved to a "Best Of" format, repeating older episodes with improved character stats.

Following the conclusion of "Shattered Glass", the game servers remained online for another week before final shutdown.

Featured characters

Shutdown

The digital version of your mom giving all your Transformers to Goodwill.

As of March, 2015, "new" content updates for the game stopped, with old events being rerun. On June 10, the game's official "sunset" was announced to occur September 30.^[1] A set of final new cards were made available from the space bridge in exchange for a newly-introduced Shanix currency, all featuring various Autobots/Decepticons helping/harassing humans; it's unclear what event, if any, these were originally planned for. The game servers ultimately continued operating until October 6. Attempts to launch the game now give a "Network failure" error, and the game is no longer listed in Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store.

Notes

• Although the designs of most characters are based on their original Generation 1 or (where applicable) Classics/Universe/Generations appearances, Chromia and Arcee draw much more heavily from their Revenge of the Fallen and Prime incarnations, respectively. The Terrorcons are also drawn to resemble their Prime toys.
• The Ultra-Rare Rodimus card art clearly depicts Rodimus Prime, but the card biography is based on Hot Rod, describing him as "young and bold" and "inexperienced."
• Frenzy is blue, Rumble is red.
• Essentially the only way to get the most popular characters (and the only way to get some of the strongest cards) was via the in-game "Premium Space Bridge", which cost at least $1 USD per use, with reports of users spending anywhere from $50-$150 USD in hopes of landing the Ultra-Rare cards. (See examples.) Later game updates would add "Epic Rare" and "Legendary" cards that were increasingly expensive difficult to acquire.
• A similar game, titled Transformers Rising, also published by Mobage, was released in 2014 for the Hong Kong and mainland China App Stores and Google Play shortly after, and was thought to be released on March 12, 2015, in the United States. This supposed US release never occurred, the rumor originated due to a miscommunication among the fanbase.
• The painted artwork was created by concept design studio Volta, from sketches provided by the likes of Marcelo Matere.
• The game was a nominee for the 2013 Google Play Player's Choice Awards for best game based on a movie.[1]
• The biographies used for many of the cards were lifted verbatim from the appropriate TFWiki articles. It is the wiki's official opinion that this usage does not rise to the level that would invoke the CC-BY-SA3 license for complex, boring, technical and legalistic reasons.
  • In other words: Yes, we know. No, we don't care.

References

External links

• Interview with game producer