Review: Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle

Platforms: Xbox One (reviewed), PS4

Developer: Bamtang Games

Publisher: Bandai Namco Games

MSRP: $14.99

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise is going through a bit of a renaissance as of late. A new live-action film is hitting theaters this March, and now we have a new video game to hold us over in the form of the action-brawler Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle.

The game features a unique art style that takes players through the first two seasons of the popular TV show. You and up to three additional friends can choose any of the original six rangers including Jason (Red Ranger), Kimberly (Pink Ranger), Zach (Black Ranger), Billy (Blue Ranger), Trini (Yellow Ranger), and Tommy (Green Ranger) as you battle your way past the evil Rita Repulsa’s army of monsters.

If you’ve ever touched a classic brawler like Streets of Rage or Final Fight, you know what to expect with Mega Battle. Unfortunately, Power Rangers: Mega Battle leaves much to be desired.

No No Power Rangers!

Mega Battle borrows heavily from one of the best brawlers to ever hit consoles, Castle Crashers. As you and your friends take control of each Ranger, you can level them up and upgrade their abilities and stats using Power Coins you gain throughout your adventure. It’s not a very robust system, but the skill trees are varied enough where you find yourself debating whether you want to upgrade your health or stamina meters, or if you should spend your coins on additional moves and power sets. Each upgrade feels worthwhile as the difference in your Ranger’s move-set and strength is noticeable with each skill you purchase.

Unfortunately, Mega Battle falls a bit short in its fighting mechanics. The game’s controls are clunky at best, as certain button presses fail to register. I found myself on several occasions attempting to block incoming attacks only to find that my block button didn’t register, even though I had plenty of stamina. Movement is also a bit restricted as the game tends to ignore your controller input if you press too many buttons at once. It’s an odd problem to have as Mega Battle encourages you to perform combo hits and aerial attacks, but the rough control scheme keeps you from performing more than 10 hits at a time.

Speaking of combat, enemy variety is adequate enough as you fight multiple versions of the putty patrol, black knights, witches, and other monsters that require different tactics to take down. Mega Battle also features your standard fare of attack schemes. In your Ranger form you have light, heavy, and ranged attacks, and you can perform ultimate power moves when you have enough energy stored up in your power bar. If you decide to play with friends on couch co-op, you can use additional ultimates as the Rangers can perform on-screen power attacks to help you level the playing field. While couch co-op is the best way to experience Mega Battle, it’s absolutely inexcusable the developers failed to include online multiplayer.

The Rangers are slightly varied from one another as each uses their own unique weapons for heavy attacks, and some Rangers are quicker and more agile than others. Other than that, they mostly control the same. While combat can be fun at times, a frustrating part of Mega Battle is starting out in the teenager form. Here, your health is reduced and you’re restricted to using light attacks and jumps … even though you may be facing powerful enemies. I can understand why Bamtang Games wanted to include the teenagers as playable characters, but it felt tacked on, forced, and flat out not fun.

For Angel Grove

The game does a pretty good job of recreating the first two seasons of the TV show. (Full disclosure: I was a big Power Rangers fan as a kid, but I veered away from the show following the introduction of the Thunder Zords around season two/three, which this game does NOT cover). Mega Battle touches on some of the iconic series moments like when the teens are chosen by Zordon to defend Angel Grove from Rita, battling Lord Zedd in the dark dimension, and the battle with Tommy The Green Ranger.

While you don’t need to be a fan of the TV show to get into this game, fans will appreciate how each of the characters and villains are handled. The cheesiness of the old series reeks through the text dialogue used to tell the story. There are plenty of pun-filled one-liners, “Morphin Time” chants, and more – and even I will admit I dorked out seeing the Putty Patrol, Rita, Goldar, Hatchasaurus/Cardiatron, and Lord Zedd again. However, some key elements of the show were unreasonably glossed over, like the aforementioned battle with Tommy. Plus, the game features an extremely brief stint with some major villains and outright fails to include a particular Zord.

Make My Monster Grow!

The most exciting, yet slightly disappointing aspect of Mega Battle is its handling of boss fights. Each boss contains three different versions. The first battle sequence is the most enjoyable when you’re in Ranger form before Rita uses her wand to make the monster grow. Version two utilizes the Ranger’s Zord tank form, which is essentially an on-rails shooter. But perhaps the most disappointing of all the fights is the Megazord battles. When you’re finally toe-to-toe with the giant boss the entire sequence plays out in a quick-time event. For a brawler, I was expecting to throw a couple punches in my powerful Megazord, but the entirety of the battles play out in generic QTE button presses, which are incredibly simple. In fact, I was able to beat the final boss of the game without suffering a single hit.

I can understand why the developers wanted to shake things up a bit in terms of pacing, but to completely prevent players from physically attacking as the Megazord in a brawler game is unforgivable.

Verdict:

There is some fun to be had with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle during its four to five-hour campaign. There’s also a boss rush mode and tower attack mode that unlocks after you beat the game, but the real fun lies within the main story. If you can forgive the lack of online multiplayer, the slightly disappointing boss fights, and clunky controls – you will find a game with a unique art style that does a solid job of recreating the first two seasons of the show. Playing with three other buddies is the recommended way to experience the game thanks to the impressive power co-op moves.

For $15 Mega Battle is a fun game for fans of the iconic TV show, even if it has many shortcomings.