| Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Super NES) |
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Released after the eponymous series’ first season, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came crashing onto the Super NES at the height of the beat ’em up genre. Unfortunately it does basically nothing to stand out in the world of brawlers, aside from represent the Power Rangers franchise. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as a solid game with a hot property slapped on it is often all a kid is asking for when he chooses the game most deserving of his allowance money.
Power Rangers is seven stages long, although five of them are two parters. They play out in a straightforward manner, you’ll run around locations as varied as “park” and “weirdly spacious sewer” beating up putties until the boss shows himself. At that point, you’ll transform into your Ranger alter ego and go through another level of putty massacre. Finally, you’ll fight the boss, then be returned to the character select screen and do it all again. That is, except for the last two levels, which play out like a fighting game as you take on one giant enemy as the Megazord. After that, you’re treated to a cinematic of the gang going for a joyride (no seat belts) and then watching Zack dance at their favorite gym/juice bar.
The in-game model for the Power Rangers is an obvious pallet swap for each ranger, which is a bit disconcerting of the girls. At least for the Pink Ranger, whose uniform had a skirt on it in the show. Less of a problem for the Yellow Ranger, since she was a dude in the Japanese original. 90% of the game is spent defeating putties of various colors, which is not that exciting. The game mixes it up with a few weird robot enemies and the occasional platforming section, but there’s really not much to it. The boss fights are all pretty easy, and against foes that apparently were in the first season of the show, but were not recognizable to me. There’s no sign of Rita, Goldar or even that other guy. Well, Rita does show up after the credits, but you don’t get to fight her or anything. An image of her just shows up in the sky. Maybe that was meant as a hint for the sequel? “Hey kids, maybe we’ll make another game in which you can finally fight the people you care about!”
The biggest surprise for me, when I pulled this game out of the vault, was the weird code I got after the game’s credits. Apparently there actually is a two player mode in this game, but it’s just one-on-one zord vs. giant enemy fighting. It’s essentially the last two stages of the game, but with a human controlling the enemy. That last fight of the game, by the way, was the only time I died in the whole half an hour it took me to beat the game. That last boss has like twice as much health as the Megazord! What do you want me to do?
Anyway, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a burning hot shot of nostalgia in its first few minutes, and then kind of boring for a while, and then a little bit difficult at the very end. As someone who remembers renting the title and being thoroughly entertained, I was pleased enough with it. But if you don’t have a place in your heart (buried deep down, I’m sure) where you still care about the Power Rangers, you probably would see this game the way it really is: mediocre.
