1. Dinobots Strike Back
Author: Casey Todd
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: December, 1985
ISBN: 0-345-32669-5
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 12
Plot Summary: The fiendish Insecticons gain control of the (rather
dim) minds of the Dinobots, hoping to turn their powers to evil.
My Thoughts: This is a pretty horrible book. The basic writing style
is decidedly jarring -- the book is written in third-person, present-tense
with lots of short, condescendingly-simple sentences. Rather than
controlling a single character, the reader instead makes decisions for
different Autobots at different times, making the book less than immersive.
The game design is further flawed by the fact that some of the paths through
the book are much, much shorter than others for no good reason -- in a number
of successful endings, the Dinobots are saved and the story stops... but in
one path, one of the rescued Dinobots suddenly remembers something which
causes the story to last much longer. As far as I can tell, there's no
reason that this event couldn't happen after all of the endings involving
rescued Dinobots, thus giving more gameplay with no additional effort. Seems
a bit sloppy to me. My final complaint is that many characters in the book
are referred to by name without much (if any) description -- if I knew the
toys better, I'd know what was going on, but as it is, most of the characters
were extremely vague in my mind. I can see how this would have appealed to a
very young Transformers fanatic, and it might still appeal to older,
nostalgic fans of the line, but as a pure gamebook, it is close to worthless.
2. Battle Drive
Authors: Barbara Siegel and Scott Siegel
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: December, 1985
ISBN: 0-345-32670-9
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 12
Plot Summary: Bumblebee, the cute little Volkswagen Autobot, is out
on a scouting mission when (rather unsurprisingly) he runs across the evil
Decepticons.
My Thoughts: This book is written in the same basic style as the last
one, though it shows evidence of a bit more (but only a bit more) skill with
the English language. It's still more than a little on the condescending
side, and as before, the reader doesn't play a character in the story but
instead watches events unfold and then chooses how to influence them. This
gets particularly strange on page 32, on which the reader is encouraged to
actually write down a warning message for the Autobots (yes, I repeat, the
reader is told to write a message in the actual book) so that they
don't fall into an ambush! If anyone owns a copy of this book in which some
poor reader actually decided to attempt this, I'd be interested (and likely
amused) to see the message. In any case, this isn't the only bit of
strangeness -- there's also an abrupt ending in which the reader falls out of
bed and wakes up (!), thus preventing the story from reaching any sort of
conclusion. I imagine that the authors probably thought they were being
clever by designing these ways of involving the reader in the book (well,
either that, or they were displaying their utter contempt for the genre).
Such things might actually be interesting if executed well, but as things
stand, the reader's intelligence is insulted and the story is pointlessly
derailed. I can't really recommend this book, but it might be worth looking
at purely out of morbid curiosity.
3. Attack of the Insecticons
Author: Lynn Beach
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: December, 1985
ISBN: 0-345-32671-7
Length: 74 pages
Number of Endings: 12
Plot Summary: The Autobots and Decepticons battle for control of the
Sun-Pak, a solar-powered device which could greatly reduce the Transformers'
fuel demand.
My Thoughts: This is the best book in the series so far, though
that's not really saying much. The third-person, present-tense writing is
here as always, but the story being told has a bit more substance than the
last too books, and the style isn't quite as condescending as before. Still,
I'm not sure the tone is quite right. I'm no Transformers expert, but would
Optimus Prime really yell "Take that, you flying fathead!" under
normal circumstances? Would anyone, for that matter? (It's on page 12, by
the way, in case you feel the need to check). You probably won't damage your
brain by reading this book, but I don't know that you'll help it much either.
4. Earthquake
Author: Ann Matthews
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: April, 1986
ISBN: 0-345-33071-4
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 15
Plot Summary: While on a pleasure cruise, Beachcomber stumbles upon
the secret Decepticon fortress. Funny how easily these ultra-well-hidden
bases seem to turn up!
My Thoughts: This book has probably the clearest characterization
thus far in the series; although the characters aren't all that interesting,
they're fairly well-defined, so even someone like myself who doesn't know the
Transformers very well can have a pretty good idea of what's going on. The
book also has some satisfyingly long paths without limiting its number of
endings, which is a sign of a decent design. Like the rest of the series,
though, it's far from perfect. The writing style remains fairly
condescending (especially when it comes time to make a choice), and the plot
itself is silly and improbable even by Transformers standards. There are
also a few choices in which the reader is asked to flip a coin or think of a
random number rather than making a decision; although I might have enjoyed
this gimmick at one time, it seems totally senseless here and now. Perhaps
worst of all (mainly because it's a pet peeve of mine), the book uses the
word "effect" when it should use "affect" (see page 37).
For shame! For shame! Overall, I'd say that this book, like the rest of the
series thus far, is only really worth reading out of curiosity or nostalgia;
it otherwise has little to offer the average gamebook reader.
5. Desert Flight
Author: Jim Razzi
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: April, 1986
ISBN: 0-345-33072-2
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 11
Plot Summary: While the Autobots are in the desert looking for fuel,
they hear a distant explosion. Meanwhile, Cosmos detects a Decepticon base
from his post in outer space...
My Thoughts: This book shows off all of the worst characteristics of
this series to their fullest. The writing is weak at best, being full of
clunky exposition, unspeakable puns and cringe-inducing dialogue. The game
design is similarly poor, with choices being few and far between and at least
a third (and probably closer to a half) of the book being wasted whitespace.
The adventure's single attempt at a "puzzle" is insultingly simple,
and most of the choices are meaningless, with there being no real way of
knowing what will lead to death and what will lead to victory. As far as
plot goes, the only things that really stick out in my mind are a weird and
pointless reworking of the Trojan Horse story and an obnoxious and gratuitous
little kid character thrown in to inexplicably save the day. My best advice
would be to avoid this book. In fact, I've still yet to find any reason not
to avoid this entire series. Oh well.
6. Decepticon Poison
Author: Judith Bauer Stamper
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: April, 1986
ISBN: 0-345-33073-0
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 12
Plot Summary: The Decepticons have poisoned the Autobots' fuel, and
now many are unable to transform! Obviously, something must be done about
this...
My Thoughts: This is really just more of the same. An empty plot, a
lot of awful and pointless puns and insults, some silly attempts at
personally involving the reader in the story's events, and nothing whatsoever
in the way of literary merit. Admittedly, this isn't the worst or most
insulting of the series, and there's even a certain degree of strategy to
many of the book's choices, but I still can't find any significant reasons to
recommend it -- as with the rest of the series, it's hard to get past the
overwhelming fact that there just isn't much here.
7. Autobot Alert!
Author: Judith Bauer Stamper
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: September, 1986
ISBN: 0-345-33388-8
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 12
Plot Summary: The Autobots have a difficult decision when two evil
Decepticon schemes arrive at once: an attempt to control all of Earth's
communications and a quest to steal an ancient Autobot secret!
My Thoughts: This book is among the better entries in the series. As
with the last book, there is some strategy to several of the choices, and the
storylines in the book are a little more interesting (though no more
believable or coherent) than previous adventures. Also notable is the fact
that the books reflect the changes in the Transformers universe introduced
by the release of the Transformers movie. Several new characters are used,
and both the Autobots and Decepticons have new leaders. Anyway, despite its
positive elements, this is still a pretty dreary book. Lots of pointless
page turning combined with the usual flawed writing make this nearly as
unpleasant a read as any other book in the series. Is it just me, or could
kids have come up with more interesting adventures by just playing with their
action figures and forgetting about these books?
8. Project Brain Drain
Authors: Barbara Siegel and Scott Siegel
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: September, 1986
ISBN: 0-345-33389-6
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 14
Plot Summary: The Decepticons plan to zombify the audience of a huge
rock concert using their latest evil invention, and it's up to the Autobots
(and Sparkplug Witwicky) to stop them!
My Thoughts: This is one of the few books in this series that I
remember actually reading as a kid. I kind of liked it at the time, and I've
attributed that enjoyment to youthful insanity up until this point. Now that
I've read it again, though, I'd have to say that it's actually not too bad,
which is particularly remarkable considering the quality of the rest of this
series. Although it has the usual assortment of puns and cheesiness, it also
has a joke or two that (gasp) actually work and a number of fairly exciting
and clearly-written action sequences. This is all the more surprising
considering that it's written by the authors responsible for the unspeakably
bad Battle Drive. Anyway, what it comes down to is that if you have
to read just one book from this series, this is the one least likely to
damage your brain (despite anything the title might suggest).
9. The Invisibility Factor
Author: Josepha Sherman
Illustrator: Bill Schmidt (credited as William Schmidt)
First Published: September, 1986
ISBN: 0-345-33391-8
Length: 73 pages
Number of Endings: 18
Plot Summary: Two Autobots witness the landing of a spaceship that
appears to have the ability to become invisible, and this eventually leads to
a battle with the Decepticons for control of the power of invisibility.
My Thoughts: What's with Josepha Sherman and ending gamebook series?
Just a few months after writing this conclusion, she also wrote the final
entry in the original Endless Quest series.
Considering that she isn't exactly a prolific author of interactive books,
one might speculate that there's some sort of curse (or blessing, depending
on how you feel about the series she terminated) attached to her. In any
case, this isn't a bad way to end the series. The book has all of the usual
flaws, but the story is definitely not the worst of the bunch and the
interactive elements are numerous; this has the most endings of any book in
the series, so there are lots of decision points offered in rapid succession.
Of course, not all of them are meaningful -- there's some coin-flipping and
random-number guessing -- but at least the reader is kept busy.