Nintendo Okie

Remember when Power Rangers were cool? Remember when you found out Power Rangers were lame? Remember when you realized Power Rangers were cool because they were lame? That is the process I have went through with my Power Rangers fandom. It’s part of growing up I suppose. We all go through a point where we think we are too cool to like something corny, but then you get over it. There is a saying, “don’t be ashamed of something that once made you smile.” Mighty Morphing Power Rangers is something that makes me smile and while I haven’t followed the show in several years, I still have found memories of Zords and people in goofy costumes. The latest version of which is Power Rangers Samurai which has begat the game Power Rangers Samurai for Wii.

What You Need To Know
PR Samurai is a brawler of sorts. As you progress through levels, enemies called Nighloks (they haven’t been Putties in a while huh?) appear for you to fight. Often barriers will appear with the enemies that only dissipate once all enemies have been defeated. Each Ranger carries their own stats for attack and defense as well as a light attack, a heavy attack and two special attacks. After you fight your way through all the minions you will encounter a boss which you will battle in a squared off area. What would Power Rangers be without giant robots? Not any Power Rangers I want to watch. The trusty Zords appear to fight the second, giant form of each boss. Unlike the rest of the game, these battles see the player shaking the Wiimote and Nunchuck when prompted to make attack and defense moves. The fights are tied together with a lot of voice acting while still pictures are shown. Think dialogue boxes with character pictures next to them. These stories are based around actual episodes of the show. The game supports two players at the same time.

Feels Like Power Rangers
While it may be goofy and over the top, Power Rangers is all about crazy villains, giant robots, martial arts fighting and corny after school stories where everybody learns a lesson. Thankfully the game nails this on the head. There are several FMVs showing transformations, Zord combinations and drawn-out finishing moves. Using storylines from the show helps a lot too. Oddly, tie-in games seems to strike a B-movie quality so when your source material is structured around such quality, it isn’t surprising how a game could match so well. As a nice touch, the player is asked to use the Wiimote to mimic the Rangers’ motions to start their transformations.

Stiff Combat
You’re going to fight a lot as a Power Ranger. Sadly the fighting in PR Samurai doesn’t feel great. The standard three hit combo is hard to direct and thus several of your swings end up hitting nothing but air. Every Ranger has different stats but these make little to no difference on how you would use them. Due to the story, the game will limit your selection of Rangers forcing you to play as other characters. Since they all feel pretty much the same it doesn’t feel as impactful as the story makes it seem. The only reason I found to use one Ranger over another (other than cosmetics) is which special attack I liked best. In the end, fighting enemies feels tedious which makes the main focus of the game rather pointless.

Lack Of Content
It’s no surprise a game based on Power Rangers would be repetitive but there is hardly enough content or variety of content to justify this as a game; four environments, four enemy types and ten different missions. There are a number of collectables to find but some can only be obtained after beating the entire game due to needing a certain Ranger to break through a barrier. Some of the boss fights come with sharp difficulty spikes as they require you to use a certain strategies which the boss seems determined to not comply with. The Zord fights are a major disappointment since they are nothing but waggle. The Megazord and giant Nighlok are separated by horizontal split screen mimicking Kung Fu movies. In between is a bar where Wiimote and Nunchuck icons fly toward the center of the screen. You shake when the icon reaches the center and your character performs the appropriate action. Instead of feeling like the epic battle it should be, you hardly feel like your input makes a difference at all.

Conclusion
Power Rangers Samurai retails for $40 (USD). While it may be a cheaper game I don’t think it’s worth the price of admission. Two players can play at the same time but the battles do not seem to scale in reaction. Once you beat the game, you can choose any Ranger for any mission but the levels and fighting isn’t fun enough to warrant going back for collectables. The game is set to the same frequency of the show but playing it doesn’t make you feel like a Power Ranger as much as a Halloween costume or a foam sword would do. You would be better off spending you money on some Power Ranger toys instead of this game. There is room on my shelf for a fun Power Rangers game but, sadly, this is not that game.

Final score –
Play time – 4.5 hours
Played through all ten missions
Review copy provided by Namco Bandai