In case it wasn’t obvious at this point, I am a Transformers
fan. With reviews of Generation 1 Seasons One – Four, Transformers: The Movie,
Armada, Energon, Cybertron, the four Bayformers films (the last one only going
up because I had a feeling someone would request it in time, and I wanted to
get it out of the way) and now Prime and Predacons Rising on this site, that
should be quite obvious. When I heard that there was going to be a spiritual
sequel to Prime, I was genuinely excited, with one catch. I am familiar with
Transformers: Rescue Bots, however I haven’t given the series a chance yet due
to its art style and opening. I’m not one for First impressions like that, but
the episode I saw, I forget which one, left me with so many problems. Granted,
I probably saw something that wasn’t the pilot episode, which would explain a
lot, but even still there were problems. When I saw the intro, there were
several questions that came to mind, “Why are we focusing on this new
generation of Protectorbots?” Where are the rest of the Autobots?” “Where are
the Decepticons?” “Why do the humans know about the “Protectorbots”?” And when
I saw the teaser for the new season last year, two new questions came up. “Why
are they now Dinobots?” and “Why is Optimus now here and is now Grimlock?”...
Moving on...
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| "Hold the line Autobots, we can't let the humans fall into hole in the road" |
The reason I bring this up is because of the major change
between Prime and this new season, Robots in Disguise (2015) (for those not
familiar with the series, there are several seasons and by continuation, toy
lines called Robots in Disguise, one of those being in Transformers: Prime, so
unofficially, it is called RiD 2015 for the same reasons Sonic the Hedgehog for
Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 is called either Sonic Next Gen or the more common,
Sonic ’06). The art style is akin to Rescue Bots, being a 2D stylized
(actually, thinking about it, quite similar to the Friendship is Magic
series, just without all the bright colours for the most part). When I saw the art style in
Rescue bots, it was the humans that took me out of it, it’s the eyes... Getting
back on topic, while the art style is similar, RiD 2015 does make improvements
to it, the human faces now look like human faces, and there’s a slight amount
of shadow use to give the characters depth, to help them stand out. It’s very
subtle, but helps a lot.
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| "How many books do you have on loan?" |
Tangent out of the way, the plot. A prison ship known as the
Alcamore has crashed on Earth, with several Decepticons using this as an
opportunity to flee. Bumblebee is sent to earth along with two new Autobots,
Strongarm and Sideswipe in order to recapture the Decepticons along with a
Mini-con (in continuation with the call backs to previous seasons) Fix-It and
Grimlock. At the moment, that’s all that there is to say on the plot as the
series itself is still airing, that’s why this is a Opening impressions. One
thing I think is a bit of a miss at the moment is the Decepticons, right now,
there aren’t any familiar faces. While I like the new faces, I wouldn’t mind a
familiar face in the mix, even if its a new Decepticon in this continuity. Can
we have Cyclonus? Demolisher? Thundercracker? The Constructicons? Just a
familiar face would be great, at least for me personally. I haven’t seen every
season of Transformers or read every comic, but I don’t know who Steeljaw is, I
don’t know who Thunderhoof is, Underbite, I could go on. While I do like how
diverse these characters are, mainly because they aren’t as cold thanks to the
war, just a familiar face would be nice. The characters, on both sides, are
interesting (I personally think this is the best Grimlock I’ve ever seen, to
date) and have led to some great interactions and situations, but there’s not
much more to say as the series is still airing.
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| I take it back, It was Jazz's stage mode Vinyl was using, not Soundwave. My mistake. |
The soundtrack is, once again, perfectly fitting of the
series, with the exception being one track, the short version of the Intro
theme, mainly because the short version is a bad remix of the original
Transformers theme. I don’t share the same feelings with the longer version of
the theme, its just the short version that they have when a episode is a bit too
long. A part from that, if you liked Transformers: Prime, you’ll like RiD 2015.
I’m curious to see how this goes on, what Steeljaw’s plan is (mainly because I
have the strangest feeling some of the Master Manipulator fans from DHX joined
in for this season). Up next in our mini marathon of Impressions, Shin Megami
Tensai X Fire Emblem tomorrow.
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