Sneaking up on us was a nostalgic trip down memory lane in
the form of a Power Rangers title. Available for $22.95(AUD) Saban’s Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers: Mega Battle (MMPR) is a retro style brawler developed by Bamtang
Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for Xbox One and PlayStation
4.
I think the simple best element of this title is the fact it
is generation one of the Power Rangers, so the gaming population of my generation will know exactly
who everyone is, even if they don’t want to admit it. We see all the original
cast including cameos from the comic relief duo of Bulk and Skull. All the
original "Good Guys" are featured with all six original rangers, Alpha 5, Zordon and featuring Rita Repulsa as the leader of all the “Baddies”. A major
portion of the bad guy foot soldiers are that from the original 1993 series and
movie release with Birdmen and Putty Patrollers. There are a few additions of
new characters to add a more expansive element of adversary also.
Original impressions of the gameplay when watching the
trailer led me to believe that it's not too different to a lot of arcade classic 2D
brawlers that I use to frequent as a child. I am happy to report that the actual
gameplay lives up to this initial opinion. MMPR boasts six levels each with
three chapters with a rinse repeat effect. Introduction to new level and enemy
type, work towards boss area and lastly taking on the boss. One thing that
needs to be noted here that can hinder progress, you can be very close to the
end of a level and if you die, you get sent right back to the start. There are no mid-level checkpoints.
Varying enemy varieties keep the game fresh until you have
mastered their attack patterns and can easily deal with them. Not only are they
restricted to one attack pattern each, but there is also a significant audible
que to assist in negating any potential difficulty. This can be said for boss
fights also, except for the fact that boss fights are incredibly FUN. These boss
fights are also broken down into three digestible stages. First take on the
boss in a 2D environment, dodging attacks and then attacking when boss is
fatigued. Secondly it’s Megazord time, which is epic by the way. In this phase
you attack weak points and defeat incoming projectiles in a first person
shooter type mini game. The last section of the boss fight is a quick time event (QTE) fighter style combat to
round out proceedings. Unfortunately what loomed as the most inviting aspect of the
game was shut down quite quickly and left a sour taste in my mouth throughout
the whole experience. There is no online co-op. Now I feel I can be blamed
for this let down had I only done sufficient research before assuming it was. In
saying this, the trailer did state up to 4 player co-op but never emphasised that it was
local co-op only. In today's day and age this can be considered a massive
oversight.
All in all I enjoyed my experience with MMPR and would feel
comfortable recommending a purchase when you see it for around 20% off. This
game will take around the Three hour mark to complete, rumoured to be a little
less in local co-op and offers a little replayability due to each character that can be used and upgraded. If nothing other than an enjoyable trip down memory
lane, I also fell victim to humming the opening soundtrack for multiple days
after playing it.
