High Moon rolls out for Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Love them or hate them, Michael Bay's Transformers films just keep coming back, and with them come mediocre movie tie-in games. Typically, a Joystiq post announcing such a game would arrive with a due amount of skepticism, perhaps a link to the meager Metacritic scores for the previous Transformers movie games.

But then, in the press release next to some malarkey about a new "Stealth Force" gameplay gimmick, there's a ray of hope. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, serving as prologue to the upcoming film, are being developed by none other than High Moon Studios. You might recall High Moon as the developer of Transformers: War for Cybertron. Alternately, you might remember it as "that one studio that made that really good Transformers game."

Okay, perhaps Stealth Force mode -- described as "a third, hybrid state that combines the weapons and firepower of robot mode with the agility and maneuverability of vehicle mode" -- shouldn't be dismissed at this early stage. The game will launch (presumably) alongside the film this July, with Wii and DS versions coming from Behaviour Interactive (formerly Artificial Mind and Movement).