Game Reviews: Transmorpher 3

Transmorpher 3 is the third game in a series that has no relation to the mockbuster inspired by Transformers, and which is the third game in a series which I can't seem to find the first game of and whose second game I can't muster interest in.

But it's similar to those experimental platformer type games that I've often reviewed, and it's just interesting enough I reckon it deserves a review.

It's one of those games where you can change your character suddenly and quickly, which is fun until your keyboard doesn't register your button presses during the tricky common maneuvers*. (It's possible to use the mouse instead of the keyboard, but it's not especially intuitive and more awkward than it is useful.)

Your default character is this green slime; you acquire the other two a bit into the game by absorbing them with this one. (Only this creature can absorb the other characters, but it's only relevant twice.)

This character is essentially a basic platforming character, able to jump and walk (er...) like Mario but little else.

You can also change into this blue wheel-like creature, who can't jump but can cling to any surface but the purple slicks found on some walls (and can't cling to lethal stuff either, obviously). One of the tricky common maneuvers of the game is leaping as the slime and then changing to this form just as you hit a wall or ceiling.

Or you can change into this big fat orange slug thing, who can't jump but can push blocks, break other blocks, is too heavy to be blown upward by fans, and can also shatter glass barriers that show up later. The main tricky common maneuver with this guy is changing into him at the top of a jumping arc, because sometimes you need to break blocks above you. (It's also often necessary to change into him in midair to break something under him, but that's far easier by comparison.)

There's quite a few things about the game that are clever and fun, although be warned that there's several kinds of enemy and you can't kill any of them; further, one type actually has a spotlight and if you're in the spotlight for more than a second or so, you die instantly.

The game this actually reminds me of the most is one that I suddenly realized I've never actually reviewed, but the main thing is, this game is interesting enough to be fun unless/until you get too frustrated with it. I can definitely recommend trying it out.

*A tricky common maneuver being anything that the game's designer expects you to do regularly but which 1) can take a large number of tries if your keyboard isn't especially responsive and/or 2) kills you instantly if you get it wrong. There's a certain threshold of tricky common maneuvers that many games reach that is prone to making me ragequit, especially when I can't do the tricky common maneuver in the first place. There's at least one game I've played where there's a tricky common maneuver that you need to get out of the tutorial section, and I couldn't do it once, much less the six or seven times one needed to get past the tutorial.

-Signing off.