Although both games are sold seperately, Transformers: Autobots and Transformers: Decepticons are both essentially halves of one game-- they both play the same, have mostly the same environments, and share a similar interface, but one game focuses on the Autobots' side of the story, while appropriately, the other focuses on the Decepticons' POV. Guess which game focuses on which.
    To begin, I'll focus on the myriad similarities between the two games before focusing on the few differences. Like the main console Transformers Movie game, both games feature a "Grand Theft Auto"-like freestyle environment, where you can tackle missions that will further the storyline, tackle optional tasks and try to earn gold medals on them for completeness' sake, or just roam around and create mindless destruction. (Health and Energy power-ups come from destroyed enemies or vehicles, and certain abilities aren't unlocked until certain points in the game. Like the main console game, you can pick up and throw certain things like cars and stoplights, but because of the limited resolution, the environments aren't nearly as destructible on the DS games.) Also like the main Movie game, the plot of each game follows the movie somewhat closely, but diverges at multiple places and expands on it from the Transformers' POV greatly. In fact, short of hearing occasional calls over the police or Sector 7 radios to send backup or fire at you, you'll have no direction interaction with humans whatsoever in this game, whether you're playing as Autobots or Decepticons-- Sam, Mikaela, and the like are completely absent from the game in any form. The single-player game, just like the "main" console movie game, is also quite short, only taking 4-8 hours to complete depending on your skill, though the optional missions and Allspark Wars extend the playtime to a much more acceptable length. The difficulty of said missions ranges from really easy to pretty darned hard, though no mission approaches the sheer level of frustration of some of the missions in the "main" Movie game, thank goodness. You also have a certain "threat level", where if you create too much destruction endless waves of cops and Sector 7 will be on you until you lay low in vehicle mode for a while. This helps to emphasize the "disguise" aspect of the game, though many challenges such as races require you to use your alternate form as well. A radar on the DS' lower touch screen helps you find nearby enemies or target locations, and by touching specific areas on the touch screen you can transform, scan a vehicle, or check the area map (all the other functions are done via traditional button-pressing). The usage of the touch screen works well, though the game doesn't require the exacting use of the DS stylus like many other games for the system-- essentially what the touch screen does is give you three more buttons, no more, no less. The controls as a whole work well, with the sole exception being the camera-- using the L and R buttons to turn the camera is a good idea in theory, but the camera turns a bit too slowly for some of the faster-paced missions. If you're in a flying vehicle form and go a bit "too" high, the camera can also shake and act a little buggy, as well. The controls for the vehicle forms are very good, however, considerably more so than the "main" Movie game's-- the ground vehicles move especially well, as do the helicopters, though if you have a jet alternate form it can take a little getting used too, primarily because you move so fast.
    The graphics in the games are about what you'd expect from the Nintendo DS-- 3-D, but limited in the models' complexity and textures, both due to the small screen size and the capability of the handheld system. Some of the five different environments do seem a bit plain and un-textured even considering this, however, particularly Hoover Dam. The environments' size differs significantly, though, from being pitifully small for a game like this (the Arctic, the Desert, Casino Strip) to being so utterly huge I'm surprised they were able to get it all in the game without any loading times (the city Tranquility). The Transformers characters and vehicles themselves are about as good as you can expect from a DS game, though. The voice acting is also top-notch, with Peter Cullen returning to voice Optimus Prime and Frank Welker voicing Megatron. That's not to say that the other voice actors don't do a good job with their characters either, however. And given how much dialogue accompanies some missions, I'm very glad to see that the voice acting and dialogue is as good as it is.
    Throughout the missions, you can play as many of the Transformers from the movie (story missions must be completed by a certain character, but most optional missions can be completed by anyone), but unlike the "main" game, you have your own nameless Autobot or Decepticon character that you use to complete many of main missions (with the story changed to accomdate them appropriately), and that character not only levels up and gains experience as you progress through the game, but can scan nearly any vehicle in the game and store it in its databanks as an alternate mode! Racing along on the streets and find out that you a helicopter would be better suited for your particular mission? No problem! Just a few quick button presses to get to a vehicle select menu and back and you're now a helicopter Transformer! This is definitely the coolest aspect of the game, as you can choose from over 30 different vehicle modes in each version of the game, with about 7-10 vehicles being exclusive to one version. Each vehicle and corresponding robot mode has its own unique characteristics as well, such as better handling in exchange for lower speed or better firepower in exchange for lower durability, to use a few examples. It also gives you something else to do in the environments-- hunt down new alternate modes. Most are driving out on the roads, but a few can only be found in special hidden places or unlocked via playing Allspark Wars.

    Speaking of the Allspark Wars, using the Nintendo DS' Wi-Fi feature, you can log onto the Internet daily, download a daily mission, and then play it as many times as you wish to gain points for your side before uploading your results. Every day the owners of the Autobots and Decepticons games compete to gain control of one of seven shards of the Allspark, with the side earning the most points gaining control of a piece of the Allspark for that day. It sounds better than it actually is, however. For one thing, none of the missions are new-- they're all just optional missions taken from the single player game-- and you can't interact with any far-away players on missions or anything like that. Also, you are rewarded with "Wi-Fi Tokens" for completing the previous day's mission, which can help you unlock extra vehicle modes and cheats for your game, but the number of Wi-Fi Tokens you receive is determined by whether your side wins or loses that day, not by how good YOU actually did on the missions, which sort of diminishes the value of them. How many times you play a day also doesn't seem to have an effect on the number of tokens you get other than increasing your sides' score, as well. Many of the mission goals are downright inane or boring, as well, with an example being "Throw as many objects as you can before the time runs out". The Allspark Wars quickly lose their novelty because of these downsides, unfortunately. (Thankfully, the main storyline missions tend not to be nearly this boring, for the most part.)
    I regrettably can't comment on the Wi-Fi Multiplayer, as you have to know someone else who has a Transformers: Autobots or Transformers: Decepticons DS game and who is sitting within 60 feet or so to play against them, and I don't know anyone else personally who has a DS, much less one of these games. Apparently you can verse other players in different environments in traditional multiplayer matches equivalent to deathmatch or king of the hill, but I can't comment on how well-done this part of the game is.
    Regarding what's different between the two DS games, it's mostly the graphics used for the interface, the storyline, and the particular characters you can use in each game. The Autobots' game interface is appropriately red-colored and more roundish, while the Decepticons' game interface is purple-colored and sharp-looking, which really help with the feel of the games, in addition to the different music used for each game. In the Autobots' game, you can play as any of the five Autobots from the movie or your own experience-gaining, alternate mode-shifting Autobot. The number of missions each Autobot is used in varies too much, though, with Bumblebee being used far too often while poor ol' Ratchet gets used in only one mission. A similar imbalance occurs in the Decepticons' game, with you playing as Starscream and Brawl very little. (The other playable characters, besides your Create-A-Con, are Megatron, Blackout, and Barricade. Scorponok, Frenzy, and Bonecrusher aren't playable or even mentioned, unfortunately.) The storyline and dialogue really helps you get a feel for each individual character and their respective sides' philosophy, particularly the Decepticons, who barely got to have any interaction the actual movie, but have tons here. And, although the Autobots' storyline appropriately follows the movie more closely, the Decepticons' storyline isn't just "conquer the world", but has a few quite interesting subplots that really add to the story. In addition to a few alternate forms for your Create-a-Bot that are exclusive to only one version of the game, each version also has one environment unique to it-- the Autobots get their own Arctic environment, while the Decepticons get a Desert environment to themselves.

    Overall, I think that the DS Movie games are the best versions of the Movie games to come out, with simple, yet exciting gameplay and a unique twist what with your Create-a-Bot and all. It falls short in a few areas-- namely its length and the creativity of some of the missions-- but it's still a thoroughly enjoyable game. Recommended, though if you purchase both some parts of each game will seem a bit more familiar than I'd like complimentary games to be.

Graphics: 7/10
Music: 7/10
Gameplay: 15/20
Storyline: 10/10
Level Design: 7/10
Cutscenes: 10/10
Controls: 18/20
Replayability: 7/10

Overall Rating:80/100 Great

(Screencaps taken from Gamespot.com)

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