Transformers G1 Is Back In A Big Way With A New Official Game Release

Published Jun 7, 2026, 5:31 PM EDT

Chris is a Gaming Editor at ScreenRant. He has been a professional writer since 2009, and has written for top TV, comics, movie, and video game outlets like Engadget, Polygon, Destructoid, and more. He brings with him an expertise in every game genre, no matter how niche or mainstream.

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That includes the outfit behind the new G1 revival, which is gearing up for release in the near future. It's a complete look at the entire G1 era, with some of the best homages possible, and we got a chance to try it out at Summer Game Fest.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye from Stern Pinball is nearing a global rollout later this month. It's the newest machine from the pinball juggernaut, and like the Pokémon table before it, it aims to tap into a distilled version of the most classic era of the franchise: where it all started. While the Pokémon table heavily centers on Kanto and the first season of the anime, More Than Meets The Eye is heavily centered around G1 Transformers.

As soon as I booted up the premium edition table, I was greeted by the classic announcer from the first season of the TV show, which is a good sign. Like other modern Stern Pinball machines, the idea is to tell a story, and provide players with broad objectives to hit so that they understand what they're doing beyond going for a high score. By hitting the Megatron area of the table, you can kick off missions, which get a fun TV-style intro and audio.

Alternatively, you can hunt down Energon cubes for missions, which make them easier but provide lower points: or avoid them purposefully to create "Cosmic Rust" missions, which are harder but dole out more points. Strangely, I found the Transformers machine to be even more user-friendly than Pokémon, as it was very easy to attune to the general flow of the table. It's a fantastic beginner machine based on our hands-on time.

Beyond the vocal narration, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker were both involved in the making of the table, and provide voicework. There's also original music from Knights of Unicron, as well as a collaboration from Stan Bush (who provided the song "The Touch" from the feature film). In other words, it's an extremely lively (not but overly noisy) machine.

Stern tables have connectivity through QR code/app scanning, which typically provides the ability to track and record high scores. But with More Than Meets The Eye, you can also track your "Cyber Coin Wallet." You'll be able to acquire coins to unlock challenge modes, including a "Prime Training" mode where the Autobots help teach you pinball. More Than Meets The Eye includes the tried-and-true competitive mode that gets rid of randomness, but we were only able to test the standard mode at SGF.

Thankfully, Stern provides an app that allows players to search for individual tables, so you can see if More Than Meets The Eye is hitting your local market. Since it's so new though, you might not see any locations for a few weeks, as Stern is aiming to ship these in earnest in mid-June.

While the jury is out on how long Bayformers will remain part of the zeitgeist, the G1 portion of Transformers will endure for many more decades beyond the ones it already has under its belt. The colorful designs of the core cast sing even to this day, and that's all represented in Stern's latest pinball effort.