Power Rangers: Super Legends

"Go, go Super Legends!"

Long ago in a distant land, a guy by the name of Haim Saban introduced a TV show by the name of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and it instantly became a sensation with kids and a source of stress for parents. I ought to know because I was one of those kids, and since 3 of my favorite things are superheroes, monsters and giant robots I fell in love with the concept at first sight. The magic started to fade about halfway through the second season, whenever it was the new sixth Ranger joined the show, but it wasn't long after I discovered the much darker Japanese shows that provided the source material and fell in love all over again. Recently, the Japanese shows celebrated their 30th anniversary by teaming up the (then) latest team with a bunch of guys from earlier teams in a big crossover movie, but I'm here to talk about Power Rangers celebrating its 15th anniversary and doing the same thing, albeit with a videogame instead of a movie.

Story-In a weird place with funky-colored air and floating rocks all over the place, the Omega Ranger (perhaps, perhaps not the same one as in the Space Patrol Delta season) is fighting a giant robot only to run into Lord Zedd, an old Power Ranger villain everyone thought wasn't a villain anymore. Put under a spell that keeps him from leaving the temple that serves as the gathering place of all Power Ranger history and, um, power, Omega is forced to suck other Power Rangers out of time to get help in keeping Zedd from taking over the universe.

So far, so good. Using time travel to bring together different generations of superheroes is a bit cheesy, but the guardian of Power Ranger history asking for their help is better than one Ranger whipping out his cell phone, calling the leaders of five other teams and going “Guys, we got a situation.”

What I don't like about the story is it just grabs the characters and thrusts them into the action. This game is meant to celebrate 15 years of Power Rangers, it shouldn't feel like an action game that just happens to have Power Rangers in it. There's no touching on the characters' real identities or anything like that. I'm not saying they should've hired all the original actors, but a little more depth to their backgrounds than dropping you into a level with a green alien who says “My boss is gonna reward me for finding your hideout!” would've been appreciated. Of course, this is Disney we're talking about. 6/10

Visual-The graphics in the game are all cel-shaded, which isn't a technique I've ever been fond of. Still, most of the enemies are recognizable if you're a fan of the show or know where to look to see what the bad guys from the show looked like. I also thought the Ninja Storm levels were pretty if a touch generic, although most of the others didn't grab me. 7/10

Audio-Not too impressed with this part of the experience. The sound effects are a bit on the weak side, and only one or two background tunes are memorable. Nothing I recognized as iconic Power Rangers music, again making me wonder what Disney thought they were making. The dialogue is especially lame. The green guy I was talking about before must've said “I'm so angry!” about 35 times before I finally hit him enough to make him shut up, and that was only until I had to fight him again in the next level. 4/10

Gameplay-This is what you've been waiting to hear about, hasn't it? Well, I'm sad to say this aspect isn't too impressive either. Power Rangers Super Legends is pretty much a Double Dragon game where the characters have guns and the camera is tilted slightly to give a vague illusion of 3D. There are 20 possible Rangers to play, but everyone single one has the same attacks. At least they have different stats to set them apart.

Of course, you can't just pop in the game and expect to start kicking butt with your favorite Power Ranger, you have to unlock just about all of them. Whenever you start a new era of PR history the game gives you two for free and then to unlock the others you have to find all the letters to spell RANGER. And they're some iffy choices, you ask me. For example, of the MMPR (first) era, you get the red and pink ones automatically, then have to unlock the blue and yellow ones. That's all they give you. Excuse me, where's the green one? The one so popular the fans demanded he be written back into the show and actually got their wish. The other way around, the SPD era gives you its cool characters for free and then has you unlock the unmemorable ones. You can't even use them in a given level until you beat it with the character the game makes you use for that era.

I said they all have different stats, don't they? Well, the truth is more like they have different maximums for health, attack and super attacks, and those are filled up at the end of a level by trading in little orbs you find throughout. I'm not sure what they were going for with a system like this, especially since, like I said, you have to use certain characters for certain parts of the game before you're allowed to use others.

As in the show, after slogging through enough goons the villain gets big and fights the Power Rangers' big robot, although for some reason, it's always the villain instead of a monster they let do all the fighting like in the show. These parts are absolutely pitiful, and for some reason are replayable too. Rather than having control of the robot, you mash buttons to fill up a meter either to attack or defend. Plus all the robots have the same attacks. Who knew? Not only don't I feel like I'm controlling a huge robot, I feel like I might as well be playing the Little Mermaid level from Kingdom Hearts 2 over again. Bad game developer, no cookie. 6/10

Replay value-You have to replay levels to build up your favorite character or use your unlocked ones at all, but the whole game is the same thing over and over again. The only area that I felt did anything different to the others was the one with the part where you have a fight with lots of incoming cars to dodge. Then again, hardcore PR fans probably won't mind the repetition so much if it means being able to play as the Green Samurai Ranger or Lunar Wolf Ranger. 3/10

Overall-I loved Power Rangers back in the day, who didn't? But this game helps me remember why I gave the American version up in favor of the original. Not that the videogames made about them are any better, but I've only rarely felt the people behind the Japanese ones thought they were peddling their stuff to inattentive buyers. Only for the most devoted fans. 6/10 (not averaged)

Ups-
* A measly $30
* Lots of Power Rangers and some familiar bad guys
* Probably more fun than reading this review

Downs-
* Missing a lot of the cool characters
* Stupid dialogue
* Repetitive action
* Choobo

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/07

Game Release: Power Rangers: Super Legends (US, 11/06/07)