Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - The Movie

"Not as good as the first game, but still decent..."

The Game Gear version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is a unique beast. Unlike other MMPR: The Movie games released on other consoles which slightly deviate from the initial MMPR releases, this GG version basically takes the previous GG release and swaps a few monsters and backdrops to fit the second season and movie. In retrospect, I can easily post the review for the first GG Power Rangers game and it will easily apply to this game. And at first glance, I truly believed that this game was more of the same... not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, that first game was a great, solid fighting game that can be considered one of the Game Gear's best games despite the franchise it's based on.

STORY: Similar to the Sega Genesis version of the MMPR Movie game, the game is split into two parts: the first half pits the Rangers against monsters from the show, while the latter levels has you dealing with movie villain Ivan Ooze and his forces. 8/10

GRAPHICS: For the most part, this game looks similar to the previous MMPR release and there's honestly nothing wrong with that, because that MMPR game was visually impressive for its time, with fluid animation and incredible detail in sprites and backdrops. It's nice to see that some of the new monsters seem to look as good as their predecessors. Alas, the cutscenes that were great in the previous game aren't as much here. There's a couple of good scenes here and there, but they're few and between. 8/10

SOUND: Again, like the last MMPR game, the sound is the only sore spot in this game - only it somehow seems to be worse. This time, they used some more songs from the show, but they just sound real awful. Just putrid stuff that'll make you deaf. Probably best if you played this game with the sound turned way down. 2/10

GAMEPLAY: Like in the previous MMPR release, you have your standard Versus modes against the CPU or against a friend that allows you to play as either six Power Rangers, four Zords, or several monsters, you have the Story mode which essentially acts as a fast-paced Survival mode with cut scenes. As before, you must battle a number of Putty Patrols before facing off against the head monster. Beat him once as a Ranger and you get to fight him in your Zord. This goes on until the last couple levels, which are exclusively zord fights, just like in the movie. Control holds up from the previous release and it's still fairly responsive, so there's no problem there. 9/10

CHALLENGE: I found the difficulty to be slightly less than the previous game, but even so, the game will give some players a rough time even if you're playing on EASY. 8/10

REPLAY VALUE: Just as the previous game does, this one's got 'em. Multiple characters, multiple modes, and variable difficulty. There's replay in this, whether you'd like to admit it or not. 8/10

OVERALL: MMPR - The Movie on the Game Gear is a fairly good game on the go, but when given a choice between this game and the previous MMPR game, I'd say go with the latter. While this game is good, it isn't as good as it should be and it doesn't provide you with much of a good time. Maybe this is due to personal preference, but I thought the first game was a better product overall. Nonetheless, this is worth a look if you want another Ranger game in your collection and it certainly isn't as bad as many of the other games on Game Gear - certainly much better than the Game Boy MMPRs by a wide margin. It's a worthy follow-up to the initial MMPR release on the Game Gear. 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/08

Game Release: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - The Movie (US, 1994)