Nineteen-ninety-five couldn't have gotten any better for a Power Rangers fan such as myself. The TV show was running on TV everyday after school, the toys were awesome, I was watching the video tapes that I bought from Woolies, and I was enjoying playing the Super Nintendo game that I rented from Video City. One day, I heard the good news that there was a Power Rangers movie playing at the cinema over at Bernie, Tasmania. (I lived near there in a town called Wynyard.)
I was so excited and then I got myself grounded and my family saw it without me, those bastards. (Joking about the bastards line.) Thankfully, it came out on video a little later on and we rented it right from the overnighter section. I loved watching it and still do. Years later I found out that there were video game adaptations based on the movie. Yup, not just an adaptation, but adaptations. For the next four weeks I'll be reviewing those games, starting with this one. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie for the Sega Game Gear. (Click on "Read More" to read the full review.)
Story
If you're expecting an epic bit ridden adaptation of the movie, prepare to be disappointed. The only movie story connection is with the final two stages. The real story of this game is that Lord Zedd is out to get the Power Rangers. He plans to do so by sending out his warriors to capture them. So, it's not really a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie game, but a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season two game.
Is it a bad story despite all that? I don't even know if you can call this a story because it's just Lord Zedd getting angry and sending out monsters to defeat the Power Rangers. It's an incredibly thin and slapped on premise, but you know what? It worked. However, this wouldn't have been a problem if this game wasn't called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie.
Gameplay
The gameplay is so much deeper than the paper thin story. Sadly, this doesn't say much as Pong is also much deeper than the story in this game. No, I'm not trying to say that this is a Pong clone starring the Power Rangers. Instead we have gameplay that makes sense with the tone of the series.
This is a one on one fighting game where the objective is to knock out your opponent by beating them up until their health bar is drained. The d-pad moves you around, while button one and two are for punching and kicking. The mode selection is quite decent with there being a story mode, a two player verses mode, and a traditional arcade mode.
Story mode has you fighting Lord Zedd's monsters, but it's not that simple as you gotta fight though a legion of Putties along side the bosses When you aren't doing that, you'll be fighting giant versions of the bosses with your awesome and powerful zords. Yeah, it takes the traditional one on one fighter and mixes in some beat 'em up elements thrown in. (Yes, I consider fighters and beat 'em ups as two separate genres. FIGHT ME!) It's a fun and interesting approach to this genre, but it's not very deep.
Outside of the story mode it's a very standard fighting game that doesn't do anything new or interesting with the genre. It does have an awesome roster of characters that are made up of Power Rangers, monsters, Megazords, giant monsters, and you can even play as a Putty. I don't see many Power Rangers games that let you kick butt as a Putty.
The fighting system isn't anything terrible, but it has a lot of room for improvement. You'll mainly win your fights by mashing buttons. You can perform special movies and the combinations to pull them off are very simple, but they sure as hell could be a lot more responsive. What you've got here is a very loose playing game with enemies that barely put up a fight. The signs of a quick cash grab game are all here. It could've been a lot worse though as this game, while lazy, it's super playable and even has some fun factor.
Two player mode is what you'd expect. You'll need a friend/ or know a fellow Game Gear Guerrilla such as yourself who not only has a Game Gear, but also has a copy of the game and the dreaded Game Gear link cable. (This means that I and nor have anybody else has played this mode.)
Graphics
Graphics are really good. There's a good amount of detail, a lot of coloring, and all of the characters look like how they are supposed to be. The backgrounds can get repetitive during story mode, but it won't bother you due to how well designed they are. Some of the best graphics that the Game Gear has to offer. I'm very sad that this never got a Master System port.
Sound
Quality of the sound is surprisingly awesome. While there's a bunch of generic tracks, they sounded very clean and have a very satisfying chippy 8-bit kick. The rendition of the Power Rangers theme in this game is one of the best I have heard on any game system. It packs the same adrenaline fueled rock atmosphere and it just makes you feel good. The sound effects though are simply meh. Nothing but boring doof sounds that didn't give the moves any feeling.
Overall, this isn't the greatest or deepest fighting game out there and you are better off sticking to even SNK's most unpopular fighters such as Karnov's Revenge. However, this is far from being a terrible game and it's got enough fun to last you an entire afternoon. It's just a harmless fighter. I'm giving this game a 6 out of 10.
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