Transforming Mecha / Video Games

• Bulk Slash has you piloting a mech with an alternate jet form.
• Gun Metal also has you piloting a mech with an alternate jet form.
• Gungho Brigade from TOMY is a Playstation game where the protagonists use race cars that transform into battle mechs as they battle Spider Tank robots that took over the world in a desert Space Western setting.
• Robo Army has a power-up that temporarily morphs the player character into a "Power Buggy", an invincible dunebuggy-type car that can barrel through hordes of enemies.
• The Custom Robo series has the Lightning Sky class of robos, which transform into fighter jets.
• The Interceptor car in the Spy Hunter series, which can become a boat, a motorcycle, and sometimes a jet plane.
• A slew of original mecha in Super Robot Wars, notably the Wildraubtier & R-1 (which are Macross or Gundam style planes-to-robots) and the Grungust series (which take cues more from Daitarn 3).
  • Super Robot Wars W contains a ship, the Valstork, that transforms into the giant humanoid Valguard by augmenting itself with its in-house mech Valhawk, which itself has a plane Air Force mode and a humanoid Close Combat mode. When they fuse with the Armstra ship into the even more massive Valzacard, the Arm Arcus transforms into a sword or a bow for it to wield.
  • Aussenseiter and Dygenguar's combination attack, which transforms Aussenseiter into... a giant mecha horse. Which Dygenguar mounts. And then Dygenguar produces a sword no less than three times the length of itself. That's about when Trombe! is reaching its climax in the song, and you REALLY should have been running a long time ago.
  • AND R-GUN! A Gundam-ish mecha transformed into a GUN?! Nice for you to get gunned-to-crap by METAL! GENOCIDER!
    • To clarify, the R-Gun was intended to be a gun (as its name suggests) for the S!R!X! in the first place. Cue Ryuusei crying HYPER! TRONIUM! BUSTER! CANNON! for god's sake!
• The three main Agency vehicles in Crackdown all transform into bigger and badder forms as the player's Driving Skill rises. The Supercar turns into a machinegun-packing batmobile, the SUV turns into a monster-truck that can jump and drive up walls, and the Truck turns into... an even bigger and badder truck with a nitro-booster for maximum ramming power. No attempts are made to justify the blatantly impossible transformations. It happens because it's cool.
• In Gunstar Heroes (both the original and the GBA remake), Green uses an ancient vehicle known as Seven Force. It has seven different variations. And you have to fight them all.
• Viewtiful Joe has the Six Machine, a transforming vehicle with six forms: A humongous mecha, a car, a jet, a submarine, a subterrine, and a cannon.
• In Xenosaga, the E.S. Dinah could transform from a starship to a mecha and back; only about half the ship was used in the mecha form, leaving the rest to be used as a large energy weapon or just left floating in orbit. The E.S. Naphtali could also transform from a cruise mode to combat mode.
  • Though the Dinah is more of a combiner, as its head is formed from a flying motorcycle that turns into a bed.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles X, Skells are capable of transforming into a vehicular mode, depending on their weight type. Light Types transform into nimble motorcycle-esque vehicles, Medium Types transform into slower but more stable four-wheelers, and Heavy Types employ tank treads.
• In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, the Empire's Tengus (anti-infantry mecha and anti-air jet) and VXs (anti-air mecha and anti-tank chopper). The Sea-Wing/Sky-Wings are more Military Mashup Machine.
  • Dunno if it's intentional or not but the Mecha Tengu stylistically resembles◊ a Variable Fighter in Gerwalk mode. Even the transformation and hovering movement is similar.
• Mischief Makers: Each member of the Beastector has their own Transforming Mecha: Lunar has a Cool Bike that turns into a wolf robot, Tarus has a tank that turns into a bipedal robot, and Merco has a flying drill that turns into a bird robot. The three of them can also combine into a large humanoid robot.
• R-Type TL series fighters transform into mecha when attached to force devices. They also use a different Wave-Motion Gun when transformed.
• The Terran Viking units in Starcraft II transform from a fighter with anti-air missiles to a mech with anti-ground machine guns. They're best used for raiding as the name suggests, fly up behind the enemy's defenses to their resources and transform to mow down their workers before their forces move back there.
  • The fluff in the campaign mode describes a trait that Vikings have that's somewhat unique to this trope: The cockpit of the Viking transforms, too. Viking pilots have to be nimble enough to avoid the massive pieces of shifting machinery, and most rookie pilots end up losing a limb or two.
  • Hellions/hellbats are a reverse example; originally a fast dune-buggy-like skirmish vehicle, the Hellion was retrofitted with the ability to transform in the game's first expansion, becoming a slower, but tougher close-combat mech.
• The Guardian Legend's main character, a Robot Girl who takes a humanoid form during the dungeon crawling parts of the game, then switches to spaceship form for some Vertical Scrolling Shooter action.
• Mr. Heli Robo at the beginning of Stage 6 in Contra: Shattered Soldier. There is also the Super Powered Robot Yokozuna Jr. which serves as the boss for Stage 2.
• Turbo Man in Mega Man 7 can turn into a car, Ground Man in Mega Man & Bass can turn into a Drill Tank, Galaxy Man in Mega Man 9 has the ability to turn into a miniature UFO, Nitro Man in Mega Man 10 can turn into a Cool Bike, & Impact Man in Mega Man 11 can turn into what looks like a three-pronged pile driver. Ride Boarski of Mega Man X7 also counts, because he can turn into a motorcycle.
• Lost Planet: Extreme Condition has the GAB-25 Vital Suit that can change from being a quadrupedal mech to high speed Drill Tank. It also has the GTF-13 which can transform between Mini-Mecha and jet-propelled snowmobile modes.
• Star Fox:
  • Star Fox 2 gives the Arwings and two other spacecraft a walking mech form-convenient for fighting on planets and inside battleships. This feature would later be carried over (along with a transforming Landmaster) to Star Fox Zero.
  • Star Fox: Assault: General Pepper's Ace Custom flagship can change its form, with its battle form using its wings as melee weapons.
• The protagonist of Thexder is obviously inspired by Super Dimension Fortress Macross, transforming from a bipedal robot into a jet fighter. In the sequel, it attacks with Roboteching missiles, too.
• In Twisted Metal Black, Sweet Tooth's truck can transform into a humanoid robot.
• In Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, the STARs are capable of transforming between a traditional bipedal form and a jet-like flight mode.
• The Eidolons from Final Fantasy XIII, surprisingly enough, turned out to be these.
• Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army comes with Final Boss the Soulless God Yasoumagatsu and the earlier Soulless God Oumagatsu, monstruous battleship/Evangelion hybrids capable of easily switching between forms. The transformation scene is awesome.
• Several RAY Series bosses, including Ray Storm's first boss, and Sem-Strut in Ray Crisis.
• The Vic Viper from Gradius appears in transformable form in Zone of the Enders.
  • Also from the second game is the mook frame, NARITA, preferring to use its entire body as a weapon and transforms to ram into enemies.
  • Tyrant and Nebula from the first game also counts as this which they go into during their second phase.
  • Jehuty itself has a similar transformation by spreading its arms and wings, straightens its legs and its cockpit...faces forward.
• Yami, from Ōkami as a Sequential Boss. The presence of a Mecha in a game set in Ancient Japan is justified by the implication that Yami, as well as being the God of Darkness is the creator-god of technology.
• Starhawk, the Spiritual Successor to Warhawk has these as the standard, flying vehicle.
• C.O.R., a Game Mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, was team deathmatch with transforming mecha, and awesome.
• Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is a rare case of a First-Person Shooter with Transforming Mecha.
• Future Cop: L.A.P.D. has the x-1 alpha that transforms between a battle walker and a hover car.
• Battle Engine Aquila has the battle engines, which can turn change between jet mode and walker mode. However, in flight mode the battle engine must divert its Deflector Shields to propulsion, and even then it can only remain airborne for relatively short periods. In a world flooded by Global Warming, the battle engine must make use of any land, debris, or enemy airship or watercraft to land on to recharge lest it lose power, fall into the water and start to flood.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising features the Great Sacred Treasure, which transforms into nearly half a dozen modes in the fight against Hades.
• Anarchy Reigns has Garuda, who transforms into a jet and can be ridden on by his teammates in co-op modes.
  • Aswell as the Gargoyles, who resemble Garuda, except with one eye and plasma arms.
• The PC Engine shmup Psychic Storm had four ships that could transform into huge bio-mechanical creatures.
• In Phantasy Star III, the cyborg Wren could transform into an aeroplane, jet scooter and submarine once the required parts are obtained. Unfortunately, the Wren in Phantasy Star IV no longer seems to have this ability.
• Armored Core features quite a few of these.
  • The most famous example is the final boss of Master of Arena, Nineball Seraph which could often travel faster by converting into a bird-like mode. It's also insanely powerful and sturdy for a transforming mech and is decked out with Beam Spam
    • It also returned as a final boss in ACE: R if the player is on their 11th playthrough and it's been pumped with steroids now featuring Primal Armor from the PS3-era games, a cloaking mode, Attack Drones and a wave motion cannon in its chest. The best part? You get to take it out for a joyride in an unlockable mission.
  • In Armored Core 3, there is a blue MT model possessing a walker and flight mode. Taking it out while in walker mode is a first priority since it unloads powerful beam shots.
  • In Nexus, there is yet another transforming mech which appears to be a prototype for the Pulverizers in Last Raven.
• Kirby:
  • Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards features the HR-1, a towering robot that transforms into a rocket-mode for the second half of the battle and attacks using scissors.
  • Kirby: Planet Robobot has the Robobot Armor. While it is capable of Power Copying, one of them becomes an auto-scrolling jet, as well as a super fast racecar.
• AirMech, drawing obvious and loving inspiration from Herzog Zwei, has the player piloting a robot that transforms into some kind of aircraft to command a variety of drone units on the ground.
• Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has the Giant Luigi opponents Earthwake and Robo Drilldigger. The former is a mecha made of buildings that can transform into a flying swarm of them and a gigantic hammer, the latter a robot made of drill pieces that can become a tank or a flying vehicle in order to use different attacks.
• The Atari Jaguar launch title Cybermorph has the player control a spacecraft that shape-shifts into different forms based on how the player flies. The sequel, Battlemorph, expands the idea with submersible and subterranean modes.
• Vanquish has the Argus, which transforms between a Spider Tank and a humanoid robot; View Hounds, which transform from helicopter drones to ground robots that use the blades as swords; and the BIA, which transforms from a humanoid to a scorpion.
• In Time Crisis 5, Robert Baxter has a robot that starts out as a Chicken Walker, but then becomes a giant robot that Robert himself will pilot.
• Scrap Mechanic, a construction sandbox game, contains the Controller gadget, that allows the players to create their own transforming constructions. With the game's system of Design-It-Yourself Equipment, there's practically no limit on what sort of vehicles the players will be able to create.
• Strikers 1945 features bosses that appear to be World War II-era war machines at first...before transforming into mecha that could not have been possible with 1940's-era technology.
• In Overwatch, the character Bastion can transform from his bipedal robot form to a either stationary turret or a tank.
• Wild ARMs 2 and Wild ARMs 3 feature the Dragon Caliber, Lombardia. He's a living mechanical "dragon" who can transform into a jet, and becomes your Global Airship after defeating him. He even gets a Gundam-style launch sequence in his very first appearance.
• In The Elder Scrolls series, the Dwemer crafted Numidium is a Reality Warping Humongous Mecha prominent in the backstory, and then as a major plot point in Daggerfall. Tiber Septim used it to complete his conquest of Tamriel, something he likely would not have been able to do without it. It was so massive and so powerful that merely activating it warped time and reality, right up to affecting even the ''God of Time'' himself. Here is a size comparison◊, with the tiny specks at the bottom being full-sized people. Numidium was usually anthropomorphic, but could apparently change its shape from time to time. Considering its reality-warping abilities and how it was walking exemplification of refutation, it makes sense that Numidium would not necessarily stick to one discrete shape.
• In Neon Drive's seventh stage, the player controls an expy of Sideswipe from The Transformers, first dodging Klax-style tiles on a conveyor in car mode, then side-scroll platforming in robot mode.
• The Ninja Warriors Once Again has Raiden, a 4-meter, 32-ton robot ninja who can transform into a Chicken Walker with machine guns and bombs.
• MechRunner has the XP-41, which can switch between battle ship and dual sword-wielding mecha.
• Persona 5 has Makoto Niijima's Persona, the motorcycle shaped Johanna, whose ultimate form is the transformed mecha Anat. Its official figure even has that transforming action built into it.
• TechRomancer, a fighting game for the Sega Dreamcast, features among the selectable robots the Strategic Variable Fighter Rafaga, a very obvious expy of the various Valkyrie fighters from the Macross franchise.
• Kaiju Wars has the Guncross Wing, one of the experimental superweapons you can develop and field against the titular kaiju. It starts out as a futuristic fighter jet, but after taking damage once, it turns into a humanoid robot wielding a sword.
• Wrestle Quest: Vanetta is a transformer-like action figure that can not only transform into a minivan, but a whole lot of things too.

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