Beast Wars is a bit different than the Transformers of Generations 1 and 2. Well, like I stated before, a lot different. It's story is complex and a lot of loop holes are involved. This method of story-telling makes it easy to tie in Generations 1 and 2 to the fray.

The basic story line is this: two factions now exist (once again), the Heroic Maximals (descendents of Autobots) and the Evil Predacons (descendents of Decepticons). A scouting group of Maximals are forced to stop a rebellious group of Predacons, and thus enter into battle. The battle causes the two fueding groups to crash land on a "foreign" planet. The planet is Earth, thousands of years before the Transformers awaken and years before the evolution of man. Before the crash landings, the Maximals disperse their crew in stasis pods to ensure their safety.

They soon discover that the planet is rich in Energon, a type of mineral in this story, and that their robotic bodies cannot handle large amounts of it. In order to stop Energon Overdose, which results in "System Shutdown", they adapt their bodies to transform into animals. Their spliced DNA is now similar to that of animals, insects, and dinosaurs. The fight soon takes a turn for the worse as the orbiting Maximal stasis pods, slowly begin to plummet to the Earth. The race is on, and the Predacons plan on reprogramming all of the Maximals to Predacon warriors.

Here's what the toy boxes have to say about the Beast Wars:

"Bio-Genetic engineering has allowed the Transformers to create a perfect cybernetic fusion between ferocious animals and mechanical technology. The result: Heroic Maximals Vs. Evil Predacons! Robot warriors disguised as wild animals in an explosive fight to the finish! The Beast Wars have begun..."