Peter Cullen based Optimus Prime's voice on his older brother Larry, a US Marines captain and Vietnam veteran whose calm, deep voice Cullen remembered as full of wisdom.
The shopping center in the game goes by the name "Metroplex". In the original animated series, Metroplex was the Autobots' city on Earth, capable of transforming into a giant robot.
Frank Welker, who voiced Megatron in G1, provided the snarls and sounds of Ravage, Soundwave's panther robot, in Michael Bay's live-action film, drawing on sounds from the 1980s cartoons.
Marvel Comics writer Bob Budiansky recalled that Hasbro first thought the name Megatron sounded too villainous, but Budiansky argued that was exactly the point, and Hasbro accepted it.
In the 1986 Transformers movie, Megatron returns as Galvatron, voiced by Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy; in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Frank Welker had supplied the Vulcan's cries and screams.
In the suburbs level, a restaurant called "Chip Chase Restaurant" references the human G1 Transformers character; his picture is on the restaurant's signs.
