It’s a sunny day outside, a slow newsday online, so what better way to spend your time than… playing videogames!?
In a sudden burst of nostalgia, I decided to make a review special on all the retro videogames based on the original series of the Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
While looking back at the Power Rangers I realize how silly it all really was, but in the end I have to face the facts: as a kid, I was hooked the the Power Rangers.
sorry for the bad quality, I had some problems exporting this from Premiere
Power Rangers? On my NES you say?
Yes… well No… kind off… While there never was made a MMPR game for the NES, there was however a Japanese game released on the Famicom called Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger.
Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger is the original Japanese show on which MMPR was based of. While this technically isn’t a MMPR game, it is however closely related to MMPR and you will see allot of familiar faces.
I can’t tell you allot about the backstory, my Japanese is a bit on the non-existing side. What I can tell you is that the plot of KSZ is hardly related to MMPR.
While the gameplay itself is pretty solid, you might find yourself a bit disappointed if you are a power-rangers fan. Every level starts of with one of the five rangers, each level is played by a different ranger. It’s basic platform gameplay where you run from point A to B and kill some enemies along the way. You are equipped with your gun, you can exchange this for your special weapon somewhere along the way. You will run into some enemies which are generally easy to kill and pick up some coins every now and then. When you collect enough coins to fill a bar at the bottom of your screen you will get a cutscene showing off the dinozord of that specific ranger. Don’t get your hopes up, all this does is fill your energybar to it’s maximum again.
When you finally do reach the end of the stage, you get to fight a bossbattle, some of these battles are harder than others, but overall they are pretty doable. After each of these battles you get to play a minigame, this is probably the only time you will get to see the megazord in action. Yet again, I have to disapoint you power ranger fans, you get to play as the megazord against the dragonzord in an epic game… of pong. That’s right, the giant metallic monsters duke it out in a game of pong. Next to this there are a few other minigames, but not really worth mentioning.
As I said before, the gameplay itself is actually quite fun. It has good controls, fun levels to play trough, challenging boss battles… But as a Power Rangers game it feels a bit disappointing.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
This is the first actual game based on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it was available on 5 platforms. The SNES, the Gameboy, the Genesis, the Gamegear and the Sega CD. While they share the same name, they do not share the same gameplay, so hang in there while I give you a quick rundown of all 5.
MMPR on the SNES, there’s only one thing I can say about it: Stop reading and go play it! NOW! I played this game right after the NES game previously mentioned, and it blows that game away. If you had to make a Power Rangers game, this would be it. Even if you aren’t a fan of the Power Rangers, you’ll love it.
You’ll start of the game having to pick one of the five rangers and, unlike you’d expect, you start of the game as the real life character of that ranger. This doesn’t mean you are powerless, but more like the actual series of MMPR you fight as a normal teenage kid. Along the way you fight off numerous putties that attack you and the occasional level based enemy. Somewhere along the way you’ll run into the levelboss, at this point you morph into your ranger. When this happens, the boss runs off and you continue kicking ass as before. Only this time you have your weapon and the occasional “Bomb” as the game describes it. These bombs call up on the power of there dinozord and kills every enemy on screen. The weapons themselves are nicely detailed, for instance the Pink Ranger’s bow will be used to hit or as an actual bow shooting arrows depending on the button combination. At the end of each level you get to fight the boss. These fights are actually quite challenging and take a bit longer than expected, but overall great fun. When you defeat the boss, the level ends…. WHAT? The level ends…. no overpowered mecha battles? What happened to the Megazord? Don’t worry, the first few levels are based on fighting as the rangers, while the last levels of the game are based on kicking ass in giant robots. And let me tell you… it kicks ass! For all I care this review could end here, you don’t need anything else!
MMPR on SNES has it all, great graphics, great gameplay, kickass soundtrack and giant robots.
Sadly enough, the Gameboy was next. I know, it’s the Gameboy, it’s limited in it’s capabilities. But still, this game isn’t exactly what I’d call good. You start of the game by picking one of the five rangers (this seems to be the one point most of these games have in common) and what you do next is walk from point A to B fighting putties. And while this has been done in other games too, the fighting itself feels stiff and awkward. You can use your knife, but that just drains your own lifebar when using it and doesn’t do more damage than just fighting. The people from the city clearly don’t like the Power Rangers, along the way they will throw bombs at you from their windows which are impossible to dodge. So when you do finaly get to the end of the stage, you get to fight the Megazord. Yaaaaay! If only it would actually be a fun fight. Just like the regular character, the movement feels stiff and awkward, the enemy is hard to hit and you’ll die to quick. Looking back on this paragraph I think to myself: “Dude, you really halfassed this.” And that is pretty much the same thing I can say about the game, it’s halfassed.
Moving on to Sega. First up is MMPR for the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive if you’re located in Europe like me)
First things first, this game is short. Gameplaywise this is just the SNES version without the levels filled with putties. While this game is fun (and hard, prepare to run to the optionscreen and turn down the difficulty level) I just felt that it could have used a bit more content. The gameplay consists of one round fighting against a boss, and the next round fighting the boss when he grew taller. The fighting itself is actually quite hard, I never really mastered the controls myself. Pulling of special attacks is possible, but only if you know how (unlike me). Don’t be fooled tho, the game is fun, and more importantly… it has the green ranger. That’s right, it has the green ranger. While you start of with the 5 original rangers, the green ranger joins your side after you have defeated him. When you finally have unlocked the green ranger, you also are able to control Dragonzord. Overall this is quite a fun game, nice graphics, fun gameplay, the green ranger, and last but not least, the kickass Power Rangers soundtrack.
And we are staying in Sega’s territory with MMPR for Sega Gamegear. I had a bit of trouble finding the game, seeing as it was actually listed as Power Rangers on romarchives, and not Mighty Morphin Power Rangers unlike all the others. I have to admit, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to playing this after having played the Gameboy version. Thank god I was proven wrong. The basic gameplay is the same as the Gameboy version (pick your ranger, fight some putties, fight a boss, fight in the Megazord) but is executed much better. The controls are smooth, no more awkward movement or stiff attacks. I was surprised by this seeing as the Gamegear only has 2 action buttons. Just like the Genesis version, the game contains the Green Ranger. One thing I would like to mention here, this game is the only one that shows Megazord going from tankmode to Megazord right before the battle. There is no footage of this included in the video, for some reason it didn’t record my gameplay, just sound.
Last (but not least?) is the Sega CD version. Frankly, I didn’t even play this game and therefore I will not review it. “But why?” you ask? Simple, MMPR on the Sega CD is just full motion footage from the show with button matching sequences during the actionscenes. If you really want to see what it looks like, there are full gameplay movies up on youtube, but I wouldn’t recommend watching it unless you are a huge Power Rangers fan.
Conclusion
Before I continue, I know there are two more games based on the MMPR. There are the games based on MMPR The movie, and another game featuring mechabattles on the SNES. Don’t worry, those are up for review on the second part of this special, I’m sure this one is long enough to begin with.
Now, to conclude. If you want to play some retro games that have solid action and kickass Robot battles combined with an awesome soundtrack. Play these games. I am aware that some of you never grew up with MMPR and therefore don’t share my connection with the show. But that shouldn’t stop you from playing the games, even if the concept of the show seems a bit silly in your eyes. And if you really don’t want to play all these games, play the SNES version. It has the best controls, nicest graphics and an overall fun gameplay. As for the others? Play them, why not. I’m sure you have played all your favorite games a thousand times already, so why not change for once. Even the NES game based on the Japanese show is quite fun. But PLEASE, whatever you do… don’t play the gameboy version of the game.
If you made it this far, thanks allot for taking the time to read this review. It’s the first time I did this, so I’m sure it can use quite some improvement. Feel free share your thoughts in the comments.
