Review #207: Power Rangers Super Legends - 15th Anniversary

  It's morphin' time!

 Power Rangers Super Legends is a 2D action-platformer game, featuring characters from over 15 years of Power Rangers history. Kinda. One thing to keep in mind, is that this game is aimed at children, first and foremost, which makes it easier to forgive some of its shortcomings. That said, as someone who enjoys Tokusatsu shows and enjoyed Power Rangers back in the day, there's quite a few of missed opportunities.

 The premise is simple, Lord Zed has gone bad again, and he comes across the Time Crystals, that allow the holder to travel through time. The Future Omega Ranger, a somewhat original character created for this game, tries to stop him, but the crystal shatters and the Omega Ranger gets stuck, however, the Operation Overdrive Rangers come across shards of the Crystal, which allows the Omega Ranger to contact him. What follows is the Omega Ranger recruiting other Rangers to aid him stop Zed. The story is pretty simple, but to be honest, it works. It is a kid's game, and the premise works well for the game. And this is where a lot of my gripes reside. The game features 15 levels(Or is it 16? More on this later), each series getting 3 stages, and this would probably raise some eyebrows, as it can't possibly cover all of Power Rangers' story... and it doesn't. Operation Overdrive, Lost Galaxy, Ninja Storm, Mighty Morphin' and SPD are the only series that get levels, with two 'guest' Wild Force Rangers. What the hell? How is this an 'Anniversary' game? As a game for kid, it ignores most of the older series, like Zeo, Turbo, Time Force and Dino Force in lieu of having the most recent ones, y'know, the ones children may be most familiar with. And what's up with Tommy Oliver, arguably the most iconic Ranger in the franchise, not being represented in any way, shape or form? No other Character has had so many appearances in the franchise, not having Tommy in the game is an absolute crime. Lastly, the cut-scenes are told via animated 2D cut-outs of the 3D models, they look terrible. Was animating the 3D models so hard? Even the game's cover looks pretty bland, mixing real photos with art, plus, the Yellow Ninja Storm Ranger doesn't even appear on this game.

 Gameplay is surprisingly good, and it can be played the whole way through with another player! You've got an attack button for a three-hit combo, a launcher, a ground pound, an aerial ground pound, throwing, dashing and air dashing, blocking, double jumping. The beauty of it, is that it has a pretty decent juggling system, that allows for some simple aerial combos and juggles, you can even downed enemies with a ground pound or a slide! It offers more depth than, probably, any other kid's game out there. Hilariously enough, you can perform infinite jumps by juggling an enemy, since every time you perform the aerial launcher, it allows you to jump again... and it's actually an encouraged game mechanic, as some collectibles can only be accessed by using it! While the fighting is fairly good, the Blaster enemies can get downright annoying, as you can't block blaster attacks, it's suggested to throw another enemy towards them, but when in tight corridors, and these blaster enemies are guarded with heavy enemies, that can't be thrown, they become a problem. Not that dying has any consequence, you just lose some of the experience orbs that you've collected and respawn right where you died.

 When you are not fighting, you'll be jumping around and trying to collect as many items as possible. The levels aren't particularly well designed, but every now and then you'll come across some fairly good platforming sections which require using the different combinations of jumps and aerial dashes to get through.... But then again, there's the occasional Leap of Faith. Then there's also the wall jumping, which is a bit iffy. For starters, two walls may look the same, but not all of them will let you cling on it to let you perform a wall jump, hilariously, in one stage your Ranger will actually cling on thin air. It doesn't stop there, sometimes if you don't initiate the Wall jumps on the right wall, or at the right altitude, you will miss the ledge, and the game won't let you cling to the wall immediately below said ledge to wall jump again, no sir, back to the bottom and start again. Throughout the level you'll find experience orbs, which are also dropped by defeated enemies, and will 'level up' your Ranger after each level. Not that there's an experience gauge or anything, so there's no way of knowing how much you need for each level up! Plus, besides an extended life bar, I didn't notice my Rangers getting any stronger. There's also temporary power ups to be found, that can aid you in battle, like increased damage or invulnerability. Each level also has four goals: Defeat a certain amount of enemies, perform a X-hit combo, collect all Ranger letters and find all 10 "timeline collectibles". The Timeline collectibles unlock art, while the Ranger letters unlock Rangers. Here's the kicker, some of these are veeery well hidden. And I do mean VERY well hidden. As in I needed a guide to find some of these.

 My issue with this is that finding all these RANGER letters, or Timeline Collectibles if, for some reason, you really want to see concept art of the level, is a bit of a hassle. Not only are they well hidden(It is the third time I say it, but I really want to make it clear just how well hidden they are!), but the levels have a ton of  'Points of no Return', usually in the way of a barrier that activates as soon as you go across them. Levels are fairly long, upwards 10 minutes long, and if you miss a letter, it means replaying the entire level. Not only that, say that you finish a level but miss just one letter... the next time through, you have to find each letter again, not just the one you missed. What the hell?! Now, y'see, playing as different Rangers is one of the game's most important selling points, but all 20 of them play exactly the same. Sure, they may have different max stats when fully leveled up, but they share EVERY. SINGLE. ANIMATION. I don't feel rewarded for collecting these Letters, just let me play as the darned Rangers! Worst of all, if you are gonna make all characters simple palette swaps... why include only 20 characters? There's no excuse for, at least, not having the entire Ranger teams featured in the game. Was making different textures so hard?

 Now then, every 'normal' stage ends with a boss fight(It translates to fighting the same 'boss' in each timeline twice, they don't even change their tactics), and every fight is the same. The boss attacks, you must jump out of the way, wait for them to laugh, and then attack. Or you can just mash the attack button, it's not like dying is so bad. Every time they lose a fourth of their health bar, they will jump back and summon minions for you to kill before they come back to fight. Every single boss fight is the same, but at least they have the decency to have different, if similar, attacks. As mentioned, each series(But Operation Overdrive and Super Legends, which only have two each) have three stages... but the third one is a Zord battle. Zord battles are disappointing to say the least. They are glorified QTES the play exactly the same all the way up to the final Mega Zord battle in the game. Every Megazord in the game has the same exact animations and attacks. Plus, it seems like the Mega Zords and Giant Bosses have lower quality models than the ones used in the normal stages. Remember that I mentioned a 16th stage? It seems that some PS2 discs are missing the Mega Zord battle from the SPD levels, mine included. I tried searching for footage online, but the only pieces of proof about this 'level' existing are the cut-scene at the end of the second SPD level(Which has Zed powering up the boss you just defeated) and the word of some random GameFaqs user. Whichever the case, you aren't missing much, it would've just played like every other single Mega Zord battle.

 The presentation is, unsurprisingly, pretty lackluster. Character models are fairly simple, and there's very few enemy models, most of them being palette swaps of 5 different enemy types. To be fair, it's a colorful game, and the Rangers' animations are pretty smooth. While on a technical level the stages are fairly bland, on an artistic level they look quite alright, sometimes even good. Music is dull, for lack of a better word, there are a couple of tunes that are decent, but most of it is forgettable. Voice acting is passable, but I think the overreacting and how the Rangers talk somewhat fits the vibe of the franchise, so I didn't really care for it.

 The worst part about the game is that it carries the '15th Anniversary' subtitle, this is not an Anniversary game, it does not celebrate everything Power Rangers related, instead, it's just A Power Rangers game, no wonder the European version lost said subtitle! I may have been harsh on the game, but at the end of the day, as far as kid's games go, it's pretty good. Platforming can be satisfying, and the uncomplicated, but somewhat stylish, combat and juggling system are a good introduction to other, better action games. That said, as a Power Rangers fan... it's hard to recommend, while it's really good, for a kid's game, it really doesn't offer much for someone who likes the franchise.
 5.0 out of 10.