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Transformers: Robots in Disguise was a mobile game, tying into the2015 toyline of the same name. The main "focus" of this app was allowing players to scan the Autobot/Decepticon symbol on their 2015 RID toy. Scanning these symbols temporarily unlocked the new playable character, if the player hadn't permanently unlocked it already. The game was developed byMarmalade Game Studio.

Synopsis

Steeljaw finds a crashedstasis pod, and revives its occupant, theInsecticonBarrage, who reveals he has the plans for aspace bridge capable of reachingCybertron. In addition, the Decepticon'sMini-Con partnerNeedler is able to rewire the stasis pod, turning it into a booth that produces replicas of whomever steps inside, giving them the ability to create an instant army. In the junkyard, Bumblebee tests out aDecepticon Hunter, accidentally chopping up a blueprint Fixit is holding, much to the others' dismay. The Autobots soon find themselves under attack by the duplicated Decepticons and are forced to fight their way through the scrapyard. Fixit picks up more Decepticon signals, leading the Autobots to findCrown City has been overrun. They battle the Decepticons there, includingUnderbite, and the trail leads them to the refinery and the nearbyRumbledome arena. At the trainyard, the Autobots find themselves tangling with more Decepticons, includingFracture. More signals lead them to a sawmill for a battle withThunderhoof and eventually to theAlchemor crash site in the woods, where they find Steeljaw in the process of powering up his space bridge. They take Steeljaw down, but Barrage heads through the portal and the team has no choice but to follow him through to Cybertron. Arriving at the statue park on Cybertron, they manage to defeat Barrage and haul him back through the space bridge to be slapped in a stasis pod. The space bridge, however, explodes, leaving them again stranded on Earth, and as they take the defeated Barrage away, Steeljaw makes his escape.

Gameplay

I'm Megatronus, stupid drones!

Prior to each mission, the user selects two Bots to use from those they have unlocked, and adds power-ups to their power-up bar. Each mission takes place in a 3D environment, viewed from the side and looking down at the ground at a roughly 30 degree angle. The player's character can be controlled by touching or swiping the screen, using motions to move the character, fire, and melee the Decepticons which appear. Striking an enemy builds up a combo multiplier, increasing the score gain, until either the player's character is injured or they don't hit a foe for a while. The moveset includes a shoulder barge (a tap followed by a sustained press to charge) which can stun enemies, a ranged weapon (a sustained press on the enemy to target and charge up) and a dodge (double tap) which results in the player character somersaulting away.

When a player character is low on power, they can be switched out for the alternate character picked at the start of the mission. While the alternate character is out, the first character slowly regains health, and can be switched back once they achieve full health.

The power-up bar, filled using powerups gained by completing missions or scanning barcodes, can be pulled out during combat to bring in the assistance ofKreons or deploy bombs and buffs. Defeated enemies dropEnergon Cubes, used for currency; weapon pickups, which give the character an unlocked weapon ranging from a sword or axe to more creative objects such as swords and frozen fishes; and Spark Tokens which fill the character's Spark Meter. Once the Spark Meter is full, the player can use it to transform the character to vehicle mode (for Combiners, they charge forward instead) and paint a trail to make it ram Decepticons, damaging them.

The common enemies encountered include Mini-Cons who explode when killed, Decepticons who can buff or heal their fellows, and Decepticons who have lasers or the ability to shoulder charge. In later levels many of them will block blows with a force field, though this can be overcome with a shoulder barge. Boss Decepticons appear significantly larger than the other character. There is no accounting for friendly fire — Decepticons can damage and even kill each other, the player can attack the Kreons they summon, and they can even take advantage of a Decepticon's healing beam if they stand between it and the target Decepticon.

Featured characters

Scanning

The app's focus is the faction symbol stickers on eachRobots in Disguise toy (similar to the franchise logo). Players can scan each symbol with their smartphones/tablets to temporarily unlock the character in-game, as well as earn "Ultra Spark" currency to permanently unlock new characters. (Some symbols can be scanned in-package, depending on the symbol's position and reflections on the plastic bubble.) Characters with toys of multiple sizes and types have unique in-game designs for each toy as well as unique stats.

Notes

• On multiple occasions, major updates to the app's list of available characters and variations thereof have indirectly revealed previously unannounced toys.
• The app's treatment of different-characterredecos of existing toys is...unconventional, to say the least: Rather than treating them as separate characters, the game considers them variations of the characters their toys are redecoed from, with the name of the new character being relegated to a meregimmick name, deco "theme" orsize class. For example, Legion ClassUltra Magnus becomes an "Ultra Magnus" class version ofOptimus Prime;Mini-ConRansack becomes a "Ransack" class version ofBacktrack; and Mini-ConGlacius becomes a "Glacius" class version ofSwelter. This was apparently fixed with one of the later updates, asRatchet (whose toys were all retooled fromStrongarm's),Paralon (whose sole toy is a redeco ofScorponok) andScatterspike (whose sole toy is a redeco ofQuillfire) were all listed as separate characters.
• The app gives weird names to certain redecos. For example,Three-Step Energon Boost Bumblebee is known as Hero Power Surge by the mobile game. Hero Power Surge Bumblebeeactually exists now.One-Step Energon Boost Bumblebee is designated as Switchblade Night. Which, by the games usual naming system would imply it is a Night Ops Bumblebee redeco ofthe 2016 One-Step Bee which isn't true by any means.
• After the adding of "Stealth" Windstrike, none of the other three Mini-Con Weaponizer redecos from his wave were added to the game. Scanning them will unlock their already added, standard variants. Once theCombiner Forcesubline imprint began, only Activator Combiners (the large figures and their Mini-Con partners), Crash Combiners, and Team Combiners were added to the app. Every other size class, nope.
• The insignia stickers from theMini-Con Weaponizer/Combiner Force re-releases of the original Warrior/Legion Class figures only unlock Energon currencies in the mobile game instead of the characters.
• Scanning Combiner Force figures is supposed to give Cryostasis tickets to unlock characters without spending Energon or Ultra Sparks. However, this only works if a Combiner Force-related figure from any size class, besides the above-mentioned ones, is scanned.
• Initially after the game's release, it wasn't possible to exit the game due to a glitch. This was later amended during the Mini-Con update.
• Strangely, in the insignia scanning demo video, a piano is seen in the shuffling character sihouettes.
• The game's Hungarian translation is ... not the best. Some characters use their English names while others are translated, including some (such as Fixit) who had never had a Hungarian name before.

Links

• Game on Google Play
• Game on iTunes