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| josh TX | Nov 21 2007, 10:59 PM |
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Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES, 1994) Ahh I remember the Power Rangers heyday. All that cool martial arts cut and pasted with cheesy teenage american actors playing the parts when the helmets came off. It took America by storm. Not long after the tv show picked up steam, Bandai jumped on the money train and pumped out the first game for the SNES. As could be expected, the emphasis here was more on the rush getting the game to market than the quality of the actual game. The game starts with the player (Yes, it's only 1 player) choosing any one of the 5 rangers in teenage form and embarking on a mission to destroy countless numbers of evil villian Lord Zedd's minions. This is not much fun, and is extremely repetitive. The game restricts you to one linear path and you are unable to move up and down the screen with the exception of a couple jumping platform sequences, severely limiting the combat to simplistic "I hit you first" style play. After beating the stuffing out of minions for what feels like forever, the level boss will appear. Upon seeing them, your teenager will transform into their respective ranger and then continue to beat the piss out of minions for 10 or 15 more minutes with the same basic punch combination. There is only 1 attack button and the jump button, so combo attacks are slim to none. All 5 rangers play essentially the same, so that kills the variety of choosing different characters, and even though they all carry a different weapon, none of them stand out as unique. As a ranger you also have the ability to perform a special "zord" attack, but other than that, its really not much different than playing as a teenager. After 4 or 5 mind numbing levels of killing hundreds of pallete swapped enemy ninjas, you finally get to play as the giant Megazord in a on-on-one fighting mode, ala Street Fighter 2. Don't hold your breath though, as this mode stumbles all over itself as well with poor control, cheesy moves and unresponsive commands. The Megazord and the monsters he fights have a special power bar that refills over time, allowing you to shoot fireballs or throw energy waves from your sword based on how long you charged up. The one on one monster fighting is cool in concept, but feels rushed and was executed poorly. The frames of animation present are very limited, and there is no fluidity in the attacks or movements, making the Megazord feel more like a snail with a delayed response time. As the fights become more difficult, it quickly becomes clear that this just isnt worth spending time on. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was most likely a fan service game, made to cash in on the franchise quick on the cusp of it's popularity. It feels rushed, thrown together quickly, and lacks any sort of real imagination or variety that you might expect from such a unique television show. Many other games have done this formula far better, and much earlier than this title. This would be the first of many Power Ranger games to come, and though they did improve somewhat, this game was simply a cheap way to cash in on a popular license, as many adaptation games are. My Score: 4/10 cheeky sick smiley  
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| Josh's Retro Reviews · Toggle Up-Video Gaming | |
7:10 AM Nov 29
