Tidal Wave is the name of a fictional character from Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon. He is a Decepticon, and at one point of the Energon series, he was rebuilt as Mirage.

His Japanese name is Shockwave, and later, Shockfleet.

Transformers: Armada

In Transformers: Armada, Tidal Wave was a gigantic Transformer who had won a massive victory for the Decepticons on the planet Devola before being summoned to Earth by Thrust. Possessing great strength and massive size, his brain power was much less pronounced, and was known for droningly repeating his own name, usually in the form of "Tidal Wave... Tidal Wave...", and referring to himself in the 3rd person. He had the ability to combine with Megatron to give his master a more powerful form (known as Burning Megatron), and could separate into three smaller ships called the Dark Fleet. His main alternate mode was a massive aircraft carrier.

In his first appearance, he attacked the Autobots, with his vast size and strength vastly outmatching his foes. He was only defeated due to the timely intervention of the Mini-Con Space team, who combined to form the Requiem Blaster, allowing Optimus Prime to defeat the giant. He was one of the main Decepticons to survive the end of the series.

Tidal Wave's Mini-Con partner was named Ramjet, but he rarely appeared in the cartoon series. He was also closely aligned with the Mini-Con Sea Team on several occasions.

Dreamwave Productions

Tidal Wave would make a brief appearance in the accompanying Armada comics from Dreamwave Productions, appearing in the final issue as one of the Decepticons battling to distract Unicron.

Transformers: Energon

By the time of Transformers: Energon, Tidal Wave and numerous other Decepticons had allied with the Autobots. Possessing a new green and white paint job, he was the guardian of the Asteroid City Energon mine, until it was attacked by the Terrorcons. He was brought to Scorponok and Alpha Q, and was persuaded to join them under the false pretense that they were working to resurrect Megatron. However, this would prove to be a mistake, and Megatron returned to life on his own, and earned Tidal Wave's loyalty, as well as that of Cyclonus and Demolishor – both of them Megatron's minions and Tidal Wave's comrades in Armada. During the attack on the Desert City Energon mine, Tidal Wave mistakenly grabbed an Energon star, resulting in lightning-like burns covering his entire body.

Tidal Wave would continue to serve Megatron throughout the series. When the unruly and traitorous Shockblast joined the group, Tidal Wave voiced displeasure, as though he and Shockblast had some sort of unclarified history. In battle, Tidal Wave was heavily damaged as a result of Shockblast's recklessness, and thus, he was reformatted by Megatron into Mirage. He now had a smaller, sleeker, speed-boat form, a sharp contrast to his previous form.

Mirage remained on Megatron's side until the end. This devotion would carry on to the end of the series, where Mirage flew into the Energon sun that had resulted in his leader's demise, all out of a feeling of extreme loyalty to his master (along with what appeared to be a romantic infatuation with the Decepticon leader)- making him a tragic example for those who swore all-encompassing loyalty to Megatron.

Dreamwave Productions

In the Energon comic by Dreamwave Productions (a follow-up to their Armada Comic), Tidal Wave is considerably more intelligent and is capable of complicated speech. In this continuity he is a Terrorcon from the start - one of a group of Decepticons unhappy with the Autobot/Decepticon peace that emerged in the wake of Unicron's defeat. After their meeting was gatecrashed by Starscream, Scorponok killed the interloper, but Starscream nearly dragged Tidal Wave down with him, with Tidal Wave having his leg blown off by Scorponok, leading to a rivalry between the two. Transported to Unicron and receiving powerful new Hyper-Modes, Tidal Wave was repaired and received his Energon coloration at this point. Following the Terrorcons in their attacks on Earth, Tidal Wave's past would come to the fore when he attacked Ironhide, who had apparently been his prisoner at some point in the past. Forcing him to cooperate when he threatened to kill Cliffjumper, reminding him how he had killed Autobots whenever he had refused in the past. He underestimated Ironhide's resolve when the Autobot activated the warhead he had come to acquire (unaware it had a default program that deactivated it) and attacked him. Tidal Wave was forced to teleport away when Jetfire arrived.

If he had survived the wrath of the Autobots, then his commanding officer Scorponok was another matter. Scorponok beat Tidal Wave so badly his shattered body was transported to Unicron and was rebuilt as Mirage by Alpha Q. He would subsequently appear attacking the Omnicons to snatch Kicker. However, Dreamwave's closure meant the character's eventual fate would go untold.

Other appearances

Tidal Wave appeared as a boss in the Transformers game released in 2004 for PS2. His alt mode was so large, half of the level was spent trying to navigate your player through his massive battleship mode.