Transformers has been an enduring 41-year old franchise that dips into 80s nostalgia every now and then. While fans today may find this fact in examples such as the 2018 spinoff Bumblebee and to an extent, 2024’s Transformers One, the franchise also did this 10 years ago on this very October day…
Memories of the last Activision-era Transformers game
Transformers: Devastation is among several titles celebrating their 10-year anniversaries this year. By October 2015, Activision had been nearly 10 years into their licensing deal with Hasbro to exclusively publish Transformers video games. In this latest battle against the evil forces of the Decepticons, players are given a choice to play between five Autobots: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Wheeljack, and Sideswipe. This hack and slash game was developed by PlatinumGames, most famous for the Bayonetta franchise. Just as Peter Cullen and Frank Welker returned to voice their respective Autobot and Decepticon leaders, the 80s nostalgia was tapped through the classic designs of each character… naturally including the Insecticons that were introduced to the franchise past 1984.
Unlike certain Transformers games, such as the 2007 Transformers Michael Bay tie-in game and 2012’s Fall of Cybertron, a number of the Decepticon bosses are repeated; namely Megatron and the Constructicon combiner Devastator. In fact, Megatron was one of the first bosses in the game, and also had among the best music themes (a little more about this a bit later).
While I did have a PlayStation 3 and also considering the game was released on both seventh and eighth console generations, I wanted to jump ahead to buy this game on PS4… but wouldn’t get one until 2017. And so, I personally got to play Transformers: Devastation during summer 2016 around the time of the Steam Summer Sale. I would say that this game defined my gaming memories from that summer. Even going back to Devastation’s release month, I remember seeing a trailer for the game and being struck by the art style. The game’s cell shaded graphics really caught my eye, making the game look like it leapt straight from a TF comic book.
The OST
I previously mentioned how Megatron’s boss battle had one of the best music themes in the entire game. His music theme is not alone though. While the Megatron theme may be my personal favorite track, I’d like to mention some of my other favorites in the game.
The intro riff alone in the Starscream boss battle took the number 2 spot. Starscream’s theme easily sounds like it could be a fighter’s theme song as one gets introduced in some kind of wrestling match. For my third favorite, it would be a tossup between the Soundwave theme and Motormaster’s, since both are so catchy in a number of ways. But alas, there’s too many good themes in the OST to list, but some more of them would include Menasor, Devastator, and the Kickback/Insecticon theme.
And as a quick side note, I remember not only thinking that a part of the Megatron Phase 2 fight theme kind of sound a bit of The Simpsons theme, but also how I was once pointed to the main melody of the first Megatron boss theme almost sounds like music from Kingdom Hearts.
Long time fans may also remember how Transformers: War For Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron both ended with modern renditions of the classic Transformers theme and Stan Bush’s You’ve Got The Touch. Well, Transformers: Devastation included its own end credits song, simply known as End Credit – Medley, by Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth. While a solid track to end the game with, it still doesn’t beat the end credits songs from War For Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron.
Overall, the soundtrack goes hard. In fact, on YouTube, the OST uploads I used to repeatedly listen to back in Fall 2015 is still up, as of this article’s upload. While not all of the tracks are in this playlist, I recommend checking it out and give it above.
The end of an era
While Transformers: Devastation received solid reviews on Metacritic, the game never received a sequel during the past decade. It’s also a shame too, considering how the game ended on a cliffhanger involving a mysterious hidden Cybertronian who could have been the new threat in a potential sequel game.
Perhaps an even worse fate for this game and for the Activision era of this franchise is that you can no longer buy Devastation and all past Activision-published Transformers titles, since the licensing deal has expired in the years after 2015 and was never renewed. This left games from Transformers: The Game through to Transformers: Devastation delisted from online storefronts for almost 10 years, as of 2025.
In recent years, Transformers fans such as myself (despite being more casual with the franchise nowadays) had newfound hope in this era returning, as the Activision Transformers games were spotted relisted on some online storefronts (via The Gamer). Even then, they’re still not officially made available for purchase, nor has there been official confirmation of when we could see them available once again. In this case, the waiting game continues.
Granted, Transformers: Devastation was still not the end of Transformers video games as a whole. A number of games have been released since the Activision licensing deal, including but not limited to: Transformers: Battlegrounds (2020), Transformers: Beyond Reality (2022), and Transformers: Galactic Trials (2024). But these TF games arguably have not made waves for the franchise like the Activision era games did. Even Transformers: Reactivate, teased since its reveal at The Game Awards in 2022, was cancelled with little to no warning earlier this year (via Rock Paper Shotgun).
Final words
Hopefully one day, Transformers: Devastation can return to gaming for ninth gen consoles (if not, 10th gen). This game was a staple of, in my opinon, a more exciting time in the franchise. Devastation was released during the same era as the Michael Bay movies and before the live action reboots. It’s possible that many fans at the time may have overlooked this game in favor of the previous game installments, and thus contributing to a sequel never being received. But even then, I’d rather take Devastation over any of the newer Transformers games released since. If Devastation and all Transformers games from 2007 – 2015 finally get re-released, whether through Game Pass or through remasters/anniversary editions, I’ll be watching to welcome them back.
