From Bandai Namco and Bamtang comes the side-scrolling Arcade style beat-em-up game Saban’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Mega Battle, based on the cult classic original TV series that spawned the massive franchise. The game is available to download now on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Platform Used for Review: Xbox One
I have to say. Even when the original TV series Power Rangers came out in the early 90’s, I kinda thought it was cheesy as hell. But it grew on me. I learned to really dig the nonsensical monster beatdown week in and week out. I may have outgrown Power Rangers quite quickly, but it always stuck with me, and I was a fan of cult classic B-Movies like Guyver, as well as the classic Godzilla flicks and even to some degree Ultra-Man. Not once did I play a really good Power Rangers videogame though in my youth, so all these years later, at the young age of 31 I decided to dive into Saban’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Mega Battle (jeez that’s a long ass title). This time I had an excuse though – my six and seven year old kids love the show. Thank you Netflix.
I played through the relatively short game with the family and they loved it. Hell – I did too, even though it was essentially a Power Rangers skin glazed over the classic formulaic beat-em-up arcade classics of old like TMNT on SNES or even Castle Crashers. However — Power Rangers: Mega Battle is chalk full of great stuff that fans of the franchise will adore, including the classic audio cuts and music. The way you level up your characters and decide which way you’ll go with them, whether it be ranged attacks, wacky team-up moves, or straight to the jugular melee — you decide how each Ranger develops over the course of the six worlds (three levels in each world, including 3-staged boss fights).
The combat is super simple, so much so that my kids were doing air combos. I can barely do air combos in Mortal Kombat X myself, so watching my son uppercut a puddie into the air and follow him up there to rack up a wicked flow of violence — kinda made me smile to be honest. The learning curve is nice and easy and I appreciate that. My kids and I pre-ordered this thing as well so we could get access to the White Ranger. Hell yes we did – Tommy is and always will be the best Ranger. Period.
We played two player local co-op (there is no online option for basement dwellers) and it was wonderful (Note: If you have four controllers – blast through this locally with three friends). I actually don’t know if I could have passed the game as easily alone – I needed to use my children as human shields against Lord Zedd (he was the only REAL headache out of the bosses… maybe Goldar too). After you encounter a boss, you would fight him as a Ranger, then once you beat him, he of course grows to gigantic size so you summon the Zords and proceed to a quick little target shooting level, before you assemble into the Mega-Zord and do a simplistic ‘match the buttons’ onscreen dealio as your giant robot goes to battle with the monster.
The graphics are terrific, the animations are all spot-on, including the cut-scenes even though they were still-shots. My one gripe on that front was the weird way the Rangers walk — like the inside of their butts were being bitten by fire-ants and they refused to acknowledge such agonising discomfort. The combat is addicting too. Once your Ranger hits level 9 or 10, it’s game the F over for every baddie you encounter, but that’s OK – just let the kids replay the levels afterwards and you won’t have to help them. Trust me, if your children love any of the new Rangers shows (make sure they watch the original because oddly enough – it’s still the best written and acted of the bunch…), then they will absolutely go bonkers for Power Rangers: Mega Battle.
There may not be much in the way of replay-ability here for adults, but if you have children who like the show, then this is a must-own for young Ranger fans everywhere. This truly is a great family game for parents who grew up on oldschool arcade beat-em-ups.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]