The
Power Rangers first hit it big on the Saturday morning TV circuit a good ten
years ago, and they were quite popular for a while. However, it didn’t take
long before the show got far too convoluted for its own good with actors coming
and going and different robots and such that the show lost much of its huge
following. However, the show is still around, albeit in a much different form.
Power Rangers: Ninja Storm represents the latest incarnation of the series. The
game puts you in control of the six Ninja Storm Power Rangers and their Megazord
(giant Voltronesque robot) as they battle Lothor’s evil plan to (what else?)
take over the world. The side scrolling level design is easy enough to
navigate, but gets boring way too fast. All in all, Ninja Storm is just another
weak game based on a waning license.
The
story is as follows: you play as the Ninja Storm Power Rangers as they battle
Lothor’s various cronies through out the City. They range from giant mutant
flowers, giant moles and Lothor himself. You can control the three Wind
Rangers, two Thunder Rangers and the samurai-style Green Ranger, each with
unique abilities that will help them on their journey.
The
game design is very simple. The gameplay is standard side scrolling, requiring
you to jump, slash and shoot your way through linear stages of enemies. An
interesting twist in the gameplay allows you to switch between Wind or Thunder
Rangers at any point in the game, and since each of them has unique powers (like
the Blue Ranger’s ability to walk on water), this can come in quite handy.
However, the gameplay is extremely simple and repetitive and most gamers will
get bored of the redundancy quickly. Luckily, the Megazord battles are around
to disrupt the repetition. Unfortunately, these sequences (which aren’t in
real-time and simply require you to press a button at the correct juncture) feel
cumbersome and aren’t very fun at all.
The
graphics are pretty good, but not great. The Rangers are colorful and nicely
animated, as are much of the enemy sprites. However, the backgrounds are drab
and undetailed and the Megazord battles look overly pixilated and weird.
The
sound effects aren’t quite at the level they should be for a Game Boy Advance
game. The music is bloopy and sounds like something out of an 8-bit game.
There are a few digitized sound effects, but nothing too extravagant.
Power
Rangers: Ninja Storm is pretty redundant game with a weak license. While the
graphics are kind of nice, nothing else seems to be working for this
less-than-average game.
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Gameplay: 5.0
The
game is a side-scroller with easy to grasp gameplay with some interesting
elements, like the ability to switch between Rangers on the fly. However, the
game is extremely repetitive and grows boring very quickly, and the Megazord
stages are cumbersome and not fun.
Graphics: 7.0
The
graphics are a mixed bag. The game features some pretty nice character models
and animations, but the environments are extremely bland and lack much detail or
variance.
Sound: 5.5
The
game features some good digitized sound effects, but the music is sub-par 8-bit
quality.
Difficulty:
Easy
Concept: 5.0
The
game seems to be an attempt to squeeze a dated license, and comes up very short.
Overall: 5.0
Power Rangers: Ninja Storm has some good graphics, but the rest of the game
falls up short due to redundancy and boring level design.
