Ever since Devastator strutted across the screen in Heavy Metal War fans have wondered about combiners. How do they work? Who’s in control? Is Devastator (Menasor, Bruticus, whoever) separate from their individual components?

It's a complicated line of thought the kind generated by a physical interaction between a group of toys with little to no explanation from it's creators, who, in all honesty are just trying to create play. However, it's just the kind of question the formidable fanbase of the Tranformers franchise love to sink their angsty teeth into.

This line of speculation has found a new home in one of the Transformers thus far least successful arenas, video games. However, here fans aren’t wondering what combiners would be like, their wondering what it would be like to be combiners.

This recent article at Kotaku.com asserts that it would be akin to "like playing call of duty, but you would only control a leg." Combiner play will evidently not be a component of War for Cybertron multi-player, though in the aforementioned article says lead developer, Matt Tieger, and his team considered it. The author goes on to speculate that this means the concept is untenable.

I, as is my custom, call BS.

This is classic failure of imagination syndrome. I.E.: "I can’t think of how this is possible. Therefore it won’t work."

Clearly none of these people played B-17 Bomber for the Intelevision. (a system so old it has a warning sticker on the bottom to let you know it’s not a toy.) Console games that expect the player to attend a multiplicity of disparate actions date at least back to this 1982 gem.

I'm sure any system for playing a massive gestalt Transformer would need some serious testing, but here are a few ideas.

Assuming a 5-Transformer gestalt, the Head/Torso could be responsible for steering and perhaps a head mounted gun. Each arm could have different weapon/shielding capabilities that they would be responsible for aiming and firing. The legs could perhaps have turrets/shielding responsibilities as well, coupled with a top down view from the base of the foot when it is in motion letting the leg player aim the fall of the feet even as it moves in a predestined direction. Basically they could step on things.

If it was only interesting in short bursts, fine. Make it a special move, put a time limit/energy bar on it. There are lots of ways to incorporate this kind of idea into a game.

I'm not saying this is the only way. Just the opposite in fact, I’m betting a lot of us could imagine great ways to use this purportedly useless feature, not only for multi-player, but as part of a Transformer game proper, or even a full gestalt themed game. (Please share these ideas in the forum!)

To assert that because this design team didn't think it would work in their game, or that the only way to incorporate an idea into the multi-player arena is to translate it into the narrow field of the FPS is just ridiculous. The Transformers is an infinitely adaptable franchise, and Video Games are a vastly underestimated medium.

I'll be surprised if we get out of this new decade with out the ability to stomp on our fellow Tfans as Devastator.

(And just where is my B-17 Bomber, multi-player co-op?)

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