Review #757: Power Rangers - Wild Force

 At last, a wild Power Rangers game appeared.

 So... Power Rangers Wild Force is one of the two Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance that actually inspired me playing every Power Rangers game on handhelds, and there's a good reason for that, I actually remembered playing through both games when I was younger and actually enjoying them quite a bit. As these games arrived, I gave them a quick try, and figured out that Wild Force would be the worst one of the bunch, so I left it for last... turns out it just might be the best Rangers game on the Gameboy Advance.

 This one is a bit different from the others, it is a beat'em up albeit on an isometric viewpoint and it uses ugly pseudo 3-D graphics, I mean, the running animation is... something. The game is made up of about 8 stages, but twice you are allowed to pick divergent paths, so there's actually a few more stages, it's just that you can't play every stage on one playthrough. The game is very basic, A jumps, which is useless in this game, B is your basic attack string, L summons a fellow Ranger for a double attack and R uses a weapon attack, a Ranger's final attack on his basic combo string actually, unless you're the Black Ranger, in which case he'll pick up an enemy and throw him. Why he gets to be unique is beyond me. Each stage is made up of various square areas, and after you defeat every enemy in an area you can move to an adjacent area, the objective being to get to the area square that houses the boss. It's usually very obvious just where the boss is, and there doesn't seem to be any reason to clear every area or to explore outside whatever route you figure is quicker. There are barely more than 2 basic enemy types in the entire game, so every single stage plays out the same, it's just that the backdrop on which you are standing changes. Lazy? Definitely. Repetitive? In concept, yes, but the game is short enough as not to wear out its welcome.

 All five Rangers play basically the same, but with different stats. Before you attempt each stage you can pick a team of four, which is hilarious because there are only five characters, regardless, the first Ranger you pick is the one you'll play as, and the other three are the Rangers you'll cycle from as you use your Summon attacks, each ranger having a different super. Midway through the game, the Silver Ranger joins your ranks, and he has the same summon assist as the Blue Ranger, but he has the best stats among all characters.

 You know the drill by now, every boss ends with a Zord battle, thankfully, these Zord battles are alright, which is the best case scenario when it comes to these games. A and R are different attacks, B blocks and after you fill your energy gauge, a A-button-pressing minigame ensues that deals plenty of damage if you don't miss any input. If the enemy fills their own gauge, you'll play the same minigame but in order to block incoming damage. In what was a strange twist, I actually started to long for the Zord battles, 'cause you see, there are 7 Zords in the game, and which Zords you can use depend on which orbs you get, orbs being awarded every time you beat a stage. Since the Zord battles are quite alright, and every stage has an Orb as a reward, I started to look forward to every new Zord I could use! That said, since you have two forks during the game, you won't be able to use every Zord on a single playthrough, and depending on which routes you pick, sometimes you won't even get a new Zord upon finishing a stage, but it doesn't matter, it was still fun to get new Zords and trying them out.

 Power Rangers - Wild Force is yet another lazy, sub-par beat'em up game on the system, but for my money, it's the best one. While I had some fun with it, it's not hard to realize just how repetitive the concept is, so your mileage may vary on it. Anyway, I'm glad I'm done with Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance!
 4.5 out of 10