About a month and a half ago, we covered the announcement of the Transformers Prime series getting its own game coming to all the Nintendo platforms. Today, we have the latest trailer for Transformers Prime featuring all gameplay footage. Though the release date hasn’t been revealed yet, Transformers Prime is slated for later this year, likely after Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

It’s interesting to see two Transformers games coming out in the same year, though it makes sense as the two have widely different audiences of fans of the same core franchise. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is built around the classic fan who is now in their later twenties or older. The story is more mature, has a darker art design and features classic versions of characters.

Transformers Prime on the other hand is the Transformers for the current youth generation. The character designs are simpler and brighter and the series has the three young human sidekicks for kids to relate to. Transformers Prime also is coming out for the Wii, DS and 3DS, systems which are skewed towards a younger fanbase.

Check out the trailer below and stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers Prime coming later in 2012 for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.

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Two Daytime Emmys. A hit toy line. A second season underway and a third already announced. Transformers Prime takes another look at the Transformers mythos to lock in new fans to the franchise’s legacy. It was only a manner of time before the series would be given its own licensed game treatment.

The game will feature franchise stalwarts Optimus Prime and Bumblebee along with others from the series Arcee, Ratchet and Bulkhead along with the human kids Jack, Miko and Raf as they try to of course save earth from Megatron. There is also a fleeting image throughout the trailer of a robot that looks a LOT like Eva-001 from Neon Genesis: Evangelion.

“Hasbro Studios has done a phenomenal job with the TRANSFORMERS PRIMEtelevision show,” said David Oxford, Executive Vice President at Activision Publishing. “We are collaborating closely with the series creators to capture all the adventure, humor and friendships from the show to create an authentic action experience for TRANSFORMERS fans of all ages to enjoy.”

“Hasbro is thrilled to be working with Activision again on an exciting new TRANSFORMERS video game,” said Mark Blecher, Senior Vice President of Digital Media and Marketing at Hasbro. “The TRANSFORMERS PRIME animated series has resonated strongly with kids and fans and we’re looking forward to delivering this new way to experience the adventure.”

Though story details are slim at the moment, check out the trailer below for the first glimpse of Transformers Prime: The Game coming to the Nintendo Wii, 3DS and DS from Activision and Nowpro after the jump.

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In an interview with E! Online, Transformers star Josh Duhamel revealed that he hasn’t been contacted about the fourth film of the Transformers series. According to the recent interview, none of the original series cast has been asked to return for the fourth film.

“I don’t think anybody’s doing it,” Duhamel told the site. “I know Shia [LaBoeuf]‘s not doing it. I don’t think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it.”

He’s not surprised about the silence, though. “Whenever these movies make that much money they’re going to make as many as they can,” he said. “[But] I haven’t heard anything about it. They haven’t called me.”

The plan now is to reboot the series, which means they can dump all those now-expensive stars and make some new ones. This is following the foot steps of the Spiderman reboot, The Amazing Spiderman.The popularity of the series is not based on the star power of the actors and actresses, but rather the Transformers themselves, as proven by the success of the last film even without star Megan Fox.

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As skeptical as we may be about the upcoming Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie from Michael Bay, we have seen what Activision can do when it gets its hands on the Transformers. While the last piece of Transformers that Activision published was based off G1 continuity and not off the movie franchise, it was a tremendous improvement from the previous Transformers movie game.

In anticipation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game, we have a whole new set of screen shots and a new trailer to show it off in addition to the list of pre-order bonuses.

Check out the full list below of all the preorder exclusives as well.

Channel wide – Original BUMBLEBEE toys with the Wii and NDS AUTOBOTS game and original LOCKDOWN toy with the NDS DECEPTICONS game

Best Buy – FREE movie ticket upgrade to 3D

Toys R’ Us – Exclusive Inverted BUMBLEBEE in-game character skin for 3DS game

Target – Exclusive BUMBLEBEE Deco in-game character for NDS AUTOBOTS game and Wii game and Exclusive LOCKDOWN Deco in-game character for NDS DECEPTICONS

K-Mart/Sears – Original, limited edition Transformers: Dark of the Moon comic book from IDW Publishing

Stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game and check out the trailer and screens after the jump.

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon has a tough road ahead to win back the hearts and minds of all the fans Revenge of the Fallen disappointed in 2009. The second Transformers film might have been a financial success, but it failed on just about every other level.

Michael Bay needs to up his awesome this time around and he might have just played his ace in the hole. However, this might help.

EW is reporting that Leonard Nimoy is set to be the voice behind Sentinel Prime in the forthcoming film. This new character is Optimus’ predecessor and was the transformer featured in the first teaser trailer.

Nimoy is no stranger to the transformer universe, having already provided the voice for Galvatron in the mid-80s animated classic Transformers: The Movie. Michael Bay has been eyeing Nimoy for a voice role since the last film, but had some reservations.

“I was too scared to ask him,” the director says. “Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful. I’ve met him at family functions. But he told me, ‘I would be honored. I’m glad to be back!’”

This is not the first news of Nimoy returning to the acting world after he recently retired. Hopefully this means he will also return to the another of the mega geek franchises he is known for. I eagerly anticipate an updated Ballad of Bilbo Baggins for the new Hobbit films!

Last year, High Moon Studios proved that they understand the Transformers license. After years of bad games and Michael Bay’s “vision” raping the childhood memories of longtime Transformers fans, Transformers: War for Cybertron brought players back to the story they wanted with the Transformers G1 universe.

Now, High Moon Studios will attempt the improbable, turning a good game for the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 out of the Michael Bay Transformers movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Behaviour Studios will be tackling three distinctly different versions of the game as well for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS.

“We couldn’t be more excited to expand on the epic movie universe in the Transformers: Dark of the Moon game, and allow fans to experience the gripping events and backstories that occur right before the upcoming film,” said Paul Wright, Head of Marketing for Licensed Properties, Activision Publishing.

“The immensely talented group at High Moon Studios are huge fans of the property, and they are thrilled to unveil some new characters from the movie while introducing Stealth Force gameplay that lets players convert to a third form beyond robot and vehicle modes to defeat their enemies in more ways than ever before.”

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Since the title was leaked for Michael Bay’s upcoming third installment of the Transformers franchise, people everywhere have been scratching their heads trying to figure out how a title as silly as Dark of the Moon will apply to our favorite robots in disguise. Thankfully, we now have a bit of a plot outline that will help us link the two. Or not.

In a recent synopsis for the upcoming novel companion to the film, the plot (or at least something close to it) was spelled out.

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime ‘Transformers’ character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

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Every once in a while, we come across some exciting stuff on the Internet. Be it a cool fan film, some great viral marketing news, or just general coolness, we like to bring you some of the best and brightest that this network of tubes and wires likes to churn out.

With that in mind, we turn our attention over to freelance writer/illustrator Neill Cameron. Neill had been making some pretty big waves on the net, including getting his comic strip, Mo-Bot High, voted reader’s choice by the UK’s DFC Awards.

Neill has recently finished a series of illustrations in the vein of some classic children’s alphabet books, such as “A is for Apple, B is for Banana” and so forth. The twist? With help from his Facebook and Twitter fans, Neill has made each letter about something fantastic in the world of comics, video games, movies, and general geekdom. For example, O is now for Optimus Prime Obliterating Oompa Loompa’s, and U is for Uhura and Ultraman on a Unicorn Underwater.

Each letter gets better and better, with some great nods to pop culture. Check out all 26 letters after the jump, and head over to Neill’s website for a chance to purchase a signed print of the piece.

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Who Doesn’t Love Dancing Robots?

Coming up with this week’s Fan Film Friday was actually pretty tough. There are plenty of fan stop-motion films out there in the webverse, but which one warrants more attention? It had to be the one that doesn’t acknowledge the new films, as Bay’s latest sequel ruins Transformers for any real fan, so we ultimately went with the easiest, a dancing Optimus Prime.

The original, done about 3 years ago by inspirational comedian Judson Laipply, goes down as one of the most viewed YouTube videos of all time, with over 100 million hits. Check out Optimus’s version after the jump, and here’s the original Evolution of Dance, in case you feel the need to compare.

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Back in 2007, Michael Bay accomplished what seemed to be a miracle in the film community: he took a nearly dead property that was built off of a line of action figures, and made it into a highly successful–and one can even say decent–film for both old and new fans. Sadly, with Revenge of the Fallen, Bay and his team try to top themselves with a grandiose successor, and come up pretty short.

The plot follows Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), two years after the events of Transformers. Sam’s now off to college where he and blah blah blah…does any of this matter? Let’s face it, you’re going to see this movie for one reason, and one reason only: to see gigantic robots beat the crap out of each other. I’m happy to say, you get what you come for, but that’s about it. This movie is pretty much identical to it’s predecessor, now with 30% more character development, mass murder, and zany humor. Oh, don’t forget a brand new track by Linkin Park, which sounds exactly like the last track by Linkin Park.

There are some pretty embarrassing moments for a film of this caliber. One of which is the use of racism in the form of CGI robots. The racism isn’t very blatant, as it is overused stereotypes that are meant to be funny, but come out laughable, and not in a good way. Two characters, Mudflap and Skids, stand out above the rest. They are designated as the “urban” Autobots, donning two gold front teeth and illiteracy. There is also a Mexican ice cream truck at the beginning of the film that sets the bar pretty low. And those who say that Jazz in the original cartoon set a precedent for characters like Mudflap and Skids should know that Scatman Crothers, who originally voiced the character, transcends race.

A major downfall for the film, which seems to be a complaint across the board, is the massive 150 minutes of the film’s length. There is definitely a period where the audience, as a whole, glances at their collective watch. Without knowing the true story, I wouldn’t doubt that the film had a much darker first cut and the studio decided to amp it up with things like jive-talking sidekicks and robot balls (yes, there are robot testicles in the film). There’s definitely a dark film in those 2+ hours, and it would be interesting to see that cut someday.

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Over at MTV’s Movie’s Blog, they’ve got some brand new one-sheet promo posters for the upcoming sequel to Transformers called, of course, Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen. I’m not going to lie to you, these posters look pretty darn cool and depict some of your favorite Transformers, including Optimus Prime, the ever-faithful Bumblebee and the evil Starscream, in all their updated, ILM enhanced cinematic glory.

What more can I say, these are great images and this movie, based on what we’ve seen so far, looks to be even bigger, badder and louder than the first one. If you’re a fan of this kind of movie, love the Transformers and thoroughly enjoyed the first go-around, you should be psyched for the sequel. I know I am. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hits theaters on June 24th, 2009.

On the left is a smaller version of the Optimus Prime poster. You can see bigger versions of all three posters after the jump.

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