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Developer: Disney Interactive | Publisher: Disney Interactive |
| Release Date: October 30, 2007 | Also On: None |
For years, Power Rangers has been very popular with children, and, as with anything that is popular with children, the franchise has spawned a long line of video games on many different video game consoles. The DS is not an exception to that rule, as Disney Interactive has now released Power Rangers: Super Legends on that system. Commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise, this game combines rangers from every series into one overarching adventure. But is the game one that is worth your time to play? Read on to find out.
Graphically, Power Rangers: Super Legends is quite competent. The Power Rangers look like Power Rangers, and the backgrounds look reasonably well drawn out also. The enemy designs are also done nicely. However, this is not a game that pushes the graphical capabilities of the DS to their absolute maximum by any means. Still, the graphics are easily good enough to get the job done.
In terms of sound, the music is okay. It is not anything that you are going to be crazy about, but it will not drive you crazy either. The sound effects, honestly, are not only generic but in some instances sound like they could have used a little more work to sound slightly more realistic. All of the plot advancement in the game is handled through textboxes, but that’s pretty much par for the course for a third-party DS game, so that is a minor gripe. The one thing soundwise that is obviously missing in this game is the fact that the Power Rangers generally make karate noises and the like when they attack in the TV shows. The inclusion of such a thing would have bettered the Power Ranger atmosphere of the game.
So far as the gameplay is concerned, Power Rangers: Super Legends is laid out in an adventure mode containing three distinct styles of play, although the missions generally require more than one of them. This being the case, I am going to address each of the three gameplay modes individually. You have portions that are basically a 2D platformer/beat-em-up (the Street Brawler mode), portions that are in a vertical space shooter style (the Flyer Combat mode), and then you have portions in a first-person mode for megazord battles, which are basically the bosses.
Let us begin with the Street Brawler mode. It does not matter which era of Power Ranger you are using as they all control the same. Your ranger starts out with the ability to do punch combos and weapon combos to attack or you can also use your blaster to attack long range. You can also walk, jump, and duck for maneuvering. As you progress through the game and gather crystals, you can learn other fancy maneuvers to add to these, but most of the fighting can be handled with these basic moves if you so desire.
Enemies run rampant in these sections, often coming after you in groups of three or more. This heightens the tension of the game significantly and makes it feel like you truly are in danger, but it can become difficult to manage all of them in some sections. This mode also contains some light platforming involving jumping over holes and pits and some stuff like that, but most of this mode is concentrated more on fighting than platforming. One other element of this mode that I should mention is that occasionally there will be objects hidden in the levels that you will have to gather to further the quest, and sometimes you’ll have to go back to a level after you beat it to get them.
The problems with this mode are twofold. First, all of the fighting will sometimes seem repetitive as it will occasionally seem like you are fighting the same combinations of monsters over and over. Second, you cannot lose in these sections. If you lose all of your energy, your ranger will simply teleport off the screen and then reappear with full energy. Obviously, this prevents the game from being as challenging as it could have been. The only thing dying does is to reduce your rank for the mission after you finish it.
The second mode is the Flyer Combat mode. Granted, this makes no sense to me, as I have never seen much of anything like this in what I have seen of the TV shows, but that makes little difference. For a space shooter, these segments are fairly easy. You have a cannon that you can fire or a limited amount of bombs that you can drop to wipe out the entire screen. Enemy patterns are, again, generally repetitive but they also seem easier than the enemy attack patterns in the Street Brawler portion of the game. Your life bar is different in this mode, with you getting five ships, each with a shield, which is a total of ten hits per section that you can take. The odds of that happening are slim, at least early on though, due to the simplicity of these sections, although it will seem like sometimes the game will register a hit where one shouldn’t have taken place.
The final thing you have in this game is a megazord battle at the end of each set of missions. These are done in a first-person format and are easily the most complex part of this game. You can fire lasers by touching the point on the screen you want to fire at. You can also maneuver to avoid weapons fire from the opposing megazord. There are also ways of attacking and defending in close range battle that you will need to utilize for victory as well. In these sections, if you lose, you have to begin the battle over, which lies in stark contrast to the constant respawning of the Street Brawler mode.
This game also features a multiplayer mode, but this mode requires a game card for both players. Should you find somebody else who has the game also, however, you can play through the Street Brawler or the Flyer Combat portions together to cooperatively take out the enemies and competitively collect the crystals. I never had the chance to play this mode but it seems like it would be decent.
Overall, it is fairly obvious that this game is aimed at fans of the Power Rangers, most of whom are going to be kids. The difficulty for the most part betrays the fact that the game is aimed at a younger audience, and is, for the most part, just right for such an audience. The game is reasonably lengthy for a children’s game also, not so short as to not be worth purchasing, but not so long as to get old and tedious for the child. So, if your child is a fan of the Power Rangers, this game might not be such a bad one to get them. If you are a serious gamer, though, you may want to look elsewhere.
| Graphics: | 6.5 |
| Sound: | 6 |
| Gameplay: | 6.5 |
| Creativity: | 5 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 6 |
| Final: | 6.1 |
| Written by Martin | Review Guide |