Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle – Xbox 1 Review – by Draul

Draul
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Genre: Action, Beat-em Up
Developer: Bamtang
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Release Date: January 16th, 2017

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle is a side-scrolling, 2D beat ’em up where you play as…. Go on take a guess… OMG!! YOU GUESSED IT!! THAT IS RIGHT! YOU PLAY AS THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS! Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment and developed by Bamtang. This is a game very similar to other games such as Castle Crashers or Sacred Citadel. It follows the original series of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which, for fans, is a pretty big deal.

In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle, you start out choosing one of five original Power Rangers. I personally chose the Pink Ranger aka Kimberly because I may or may not have had a thing for Amy Jo Johnson as a kid, my coop partner picked Jason the Red Ranger. First thing to notice is each Ranger has a separate level and skill tree. So, if at any point you decide you want to play a different Power Ranger, you will need to start back as a level one character. It isn’t impossible in the later levels but it definitely hurts some. Especially if you are trying it on harder difficulties.  However, about half way through the game, you unlock a new character to play. Which once unlocked I swapped to in our co-op campaign.

As the Pink Ranger used a bow in the series from time to time, that is precisely what she uses as her “weapon” in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle. My co-op partner had a sword and a laser pistol. However those are strictly for their weapon combat. The most common and stamina/energy free form combat is martial arts and each character gets their own combos and styles.  As you level up, you eventually get skill points and can spend those skill points on progressing your character. You can choose to be more stat-oriented, martial arts-oriented, or weapon-based.

There isn’t a huge variety of combos, mobs, or levels in the game. In fact, I think there might be 10 different mobs throughout the entire campaign. Then like 6 or 7 bosses as well. One of those said bosses is a reused boss that you technically are beating but get a cutscene as if you lost the fight and comeback to fight the exact same boss later in the last chapter of the game.   After beating the game you unlock a new difficulty and a mode that lets you continue playing in what I believe to be a wave-based mode. There are 6 total levels in the entire game, which took just over 2 hours to beat. If we count the breaks we took it was actually less than 2 hours which is likely why the game never released to PC (Steam having the 2 hour refund limit).

The story content is basically 6 levels each having 3-5 stages in each. Then each stage has some sort of mini boss or encounter and then the final boss being in a MegaZord battle. The final bosses in each level have 3 phases as well. Usually you fight as the Power Rangers, then they combine their Dino Zords in a shooter ish mode where you shoot plates off of each boss and then shoot their projectiles so you don’t take damage. Then the final phase is a quick time event where you fight as the MegaZord. The game honestly feels more like a mobile game for the most part and the fact that every boss encounter ends with at least the same 2 stages is rather pathetic considering the IP and the Publisher.

The art feels rushed, the animations are clunky and still somehow manage to be the best part of the game. The campaign is short and lots of content is over used. This really is a sad showing for what could have been an epic outing for the Power Rangers. Especially with a new movie coming out. Sadly the game comes up short in every aspect. This game is 14.99$ regularly and I cannot recommend the game at this price, Not with the content and the lack of real multiplayer. The game has local coop but is not online coop. Look for this when it inevitably hits 5$ or less during an upcoming sale, and even then only if your feeling very nostalgic.

Pros
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers IP
Original TV Series Story-ish

Cons
The Art looks more like half finished concept art
The movement is clunky
Not much variety
Re-use of boss mechanics
Entire Re-use of 1 boss
Can beat game in under 2 hours

Draul gives Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle a Drastik Measure 5.5 out of 10.0 (55).

I feel as though Bandai Namco Entertainment and Bamtang had the chance to make an amazing title. Even if it was still a 2d beat em up.  We have reviewed plenty of games in that style and those games are just leaps and bounds better than Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Mega Battle There is next to no voice acting and this one thing that shocked me more than anything… They didn’t even have the original theme song. They couldn’t even knock Nostalgia all the way out of the park. All these lead up to a pile of disappointment. If they release DLC or new seasons of Power Rangers in a new game I hope these are things they take into consideration.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/sabans-mighty-morphin-power-rangers-mega-battle/bzl8smbdbrnq