In theory, you could die after beating every single enemy, and yet continue to progress. Even changing the difficulty to hard doesn't change this. Also, the puzzle mini-game gets fairly tough later on, but if you want, you can simply bypass it and open the door anyway, which we found rather odd. (Though perhaps this isn't a completely bad idea; we used the feature once, when we encountered a puzzle we suspect is impossible.)

The game's presentation is decent. The graphics aren't anything special, even for the Wii, but we encountered no technical problems and all your favorite Transformers are instantly recognizable. The various environments lack detail, but never in such a way that it's confusing where you're supposed to go. The music supports the action without getting on your nerves, and the sound effects similarly do their thing without getting in the way. There's quite a bit of voice acting; the acting itself isn't too bad, but the dialogue is truly awful, though that's to be expected in a kid-targeted action title.

As for extras, there's a multiplayer arena battle mode that we didn't find too engrossing. Mainly, you run around the screen with a friend, fending off wave after wave of enemies. You can also unlock various images, and even Transformers cartoon episodes. For us, these features didn't add a lot of replay value, and at full price, the campaign costs about $10 an hour to play, so a rental will probably do the trick for most players.

All in all, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen provides a few hours of beat-'em-up/shooting action encased in a well-presented if corny story. The Wii isn't exactly teeming with playable action titles these days, so it might be worth a shot when you finish The Conduit this month. This is especially the case if you have fond childhood memories of the Transformers toy line, or if there are kids in the house.

By Robert VerBruggen
CCC Freelance Writer