Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - The Movie

"Good old-school Power Rangers, but not without its flaws"

Yes, another review of a Power Rangers game from me. In terms of the early titles, there's a couple of them I'm still missing as far as reviews go and so here's one on the Game Boy version of MMPR: The Movie, which came out around the same time as the SNES Power Rangers game. As you can tell from the title, both games are tie-ins to the Power Rangers movie (the first movie, not the crappy second movie) that came out at the same time. So let's get on with it.

STORY: The problem with the SNES version was this: if you're going to name it after the movie, then the smart move would be to follow the movie instead of having nothing to do with the movie. The Game Boy version has a similar problem, but does have more of a movie feel to it; the bosses you encounter (save for Goldar and Lord Zedd - since the Rat was a concept for the movie, he counts as a movie foe), are featured foes from the movie, so it gets points for that. And the Rangers do don the suits from the movie too (something the Sega games, while based on the movie, didn't pull off). Still, the game missed the mark just a tad. 5/10

GRAPHICS: Definitely a step up from the previous crappy game, the graphics are more detailed here and the Rangers are depicted in their armor-plated suits from the movie as opposed to the TV suits which are depicted all the other ones. The background graphics and bosses are also more detailed than usual, but the Putty enemies are still the same bland stick-figures from the first game. It's hard to tell that they're the new upgraded putties of the second season as opposed to the originals of the first season... this despite the fact that neither version appeared in the movie. 7/10

SOUND: The sound is fairly average - everything sounds like what it should in terms of punches thrown, attacks landed, and whatnot. I kinda dug some of the tunes in this game, but sadly, the wretched ear-grinding "Go Go Power Rangers" theme music is in here too. 6/10

GAMEPLAY: A couple of changes from the previous game. In contrast to the SNES version, the game plays more like a brawler in which you can land multiple blows in succession. You can choose from one of six Power Rangers, although the truth is that there isn't much difference between any of them, so it's strictly a matter of preference. Collecting bolts will charge your special meter and a full meter will allow you to morph into a Power Ranger (from there, you can charge the meter again to do absolutely nothing - that's a gripe). Taking a page out of Mega Man, you can choose which order you wish to play the initial five levels before tackling the final level. All in all, this is a fairly decent improvement in terms of gameplay. Controls work rather well in this game - no complaints, although there are times when I felt hit detection was spotty. 7/10

CHALLENGE: The game has a fair difficulty level that makes it pretty beatable, although some portions of the game tend to be tricky. The spotty collisions also adds to the problematic challenge of the game. Still, these are hurdles easily conquered. 5/10

REPLAY VALUE: Akin to most beat-em-ups of the era, once you beat the game, there's really no reason to replay the game. This seems to be the common theme among these early era games which are limited in scope, but is moreso here. Since the Rangers all play the same way! 2/10

OVERALL: MMPR The Movie is an improvement over the first Game Boy offering; there's no denying that. However, the hit detection and lack of variation between the six Rangers prevent it from being anything more than just a good offering. It's a good game, but somewhat lacking. Still, it's worth a try. 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/06