Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

"STILL the best Power Rangers game to date, and although that doesn't say much, it's fine because this game speaks for itself"

Fighting games on handheld systems have always been a little dodgy: crappy sprites, poor hit detection, slow action, cheap and unbalanced attacks, GENERAL LACK OF DEPTH, etc,. The Darkstalkers PSP port aside, this game is, without a doubt, the best fighting game ever published on a handheld system.

STORY: 8/10 - This being a licensed game, the only thing the developers had to do was animate pre-existing scenarios from the television show to use in the game. Fortunately, the story mode basically takes several of the most popular scenarios from the original couple of seasons of Power Rangers and gives them stages to accompany. Normally, this would've been scored at a six, but the fact that they included several of the most well-loved monster designs for game characters gives this two extra points. Boss characters include King Sphinx, Shell Shock, Polluticorn, Nasty Knight, Goldar, and Cyclopsis.

Graphics: 8/10 - Considering the Game Gear's output capability, this game looks excellent. Character sprites show variety in their attacks, showing rather nice sprite work for more complex attacks. Dashes, backdashes, dash attacks, and such are animated individually and look rather nice. Stage backgrounds look like generic fighter fare, though, but if they sacrificed background detail for game speed, I won't complain.

Sound: 8/10 Sound effects are a little redundant, but actually help you identify what type of attack is tearing through you at the moment. Music is a bit above average, with a few catchy Power Rangers-esque tunes to light your sentai passion aflame.

Gameplay: 10/10 - Very few fighting games deserve a perfect ten for gameplay (Virtua Fighter 4 is probably the only one that does), but this one DOES. The reason it does is because of fast (this game is quite quick), responsive, and fluid control, as well as spot on hit detection. It plays like a standard fighting game with a two button setup. One button is for punching, the other for kicking and pressing both at the same time creates a power strike/knockdown-type attack, with different variations on the attack depending on whether of not your character is standing, crouching, midair, or dashing. Wait, did I say DASHING? Lawd, I believe I did.

This game features a dashing system that allows you to perform you attacks as you dash (tap forward twice) for a little extra range. There's also a backdash (tap back twice) that has fully functional autoguards for some characters, while others may be vulnerable to attack. Different characters have different speeds, jump heights, and specials. Specials are easy to pull off, only requiring a compination of the quarter circle forward motion paired with one of the aforementioned three attack button combinations. These attacks balance the game quite nicely, and if you know the perks of your opponents, what moves they have, how they can damage you, fighting becomes a lot easier, and boy can this game get HARD. There are three available difficulties: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Hard mode is like playing SNK bosses at Arcade difficulty. The game really forces you to know your enemy.

And speaking of enemies, the stage layout is as follows:

Ranger warps in, fights a few putties, Goldar shows up, Goldar gets beat up, more putties appear, boss appears. Boss is defeated. Now things get interesting. Rita throws staff at Earth, monster grows. ZORD BATTLE COMMENCE. You will fight Zord battles in the same manner, except that the physics change slightly to feel more like giant robots and monsters are really battling it out. Nice touch. After you defeat the Green Ranger, you gain access to the Dragonzord, as well as the Mega Dragonzord for Zord battles. They actually thought some of this through (unlike a solid majority of licensed games in existence) and attempted to make a game that would hold true to the spirit of the original series. VERY impressive.

Also, do not play this on an emulator. The control feels a little stiffer. You should be playing this on an actual cartridge for maximum enjoyment.

Story: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 10/10

TOTAL: 34/40 = 8.5/10 = 9 (Rounded for GameFAQs Standards)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/06