The robots may be in disguise, but there isn’t anything subtle about Platinum’s love letter to old school Transformers.

In a world where the battle between Autobots and Decepticons hadn’t been adapted into one of the biggest film franchises on Earth, Transformers Devastation would be a dizzying dose of nostalgia. Platinum Games, one of the industry’s best action developers, lovingly lifting the original cartoon series (Generation 1, as it’s retroactively known) for a beautifully animated brawler? It would be an answer to the prayers of an 80s-kid-at-heart.

However, we live in this reality, and it’s one where there have been a couple of excellent Transformers games and four extremely loud movies. It’s a reality whereTransformers Devastation doesn’t get a free nostalgia pass, and as a result, its numerous shortcomings will likely warn away all but the most diehard G1 fans. But, if you count yourself among that number, read on, because you are in for a treat.

The plot of Transformers Devastation is simple: the Decepticons want to turn Earth into Cybertron 2 and the heroic Autobots have to stop them because they really like Earthlings how they are (which is to say, alive). There are innumerable Cyber MacGuffins tossed into the mix, because this is a Transformers story, but it’s easy to follow if you just remember that whatever the Decepticons say they want to do, you, the player controlling the Autobots, want to do the inverse of that.