Post by Ayen on Jan 23, 2012 12:53:32 GMT -6
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue the video game was developed by Mass Media Inc (N64), Climax Studios (PlayStation), Natsume (GBC) and Red Sky Interactive (Mac/Win). THQ published a majority of the ports with the exception of the one for PC which was developed by Bandai America, who owns the rights of Power Rangers, lost them to Disney and then bought them back rather recently. Today we'll be looking at the PlayStation port developed by Climax Studios but first a quick look into the history of Power Rangers.
Power Rangers is a popular action-hero franchise that began in 1993 by Bandai America using stock footage from a Japanese show called Kyuryu Sentai Zyuranger which they then dubbed over and added original footage and music. Needless to say Power Rangers was a huge success and despite complaints of violence and racism Power Rangers went on to make series, after series, after series. Even making a featured film in 1995 and another movie that would start the Turbo Rangers series in 1997.
By 2000 we had Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, adapted from Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive and was the sixth series in the Power Rangers franchise. The video game was to come out in June and give us the ability to control all five Lightspeed Rangers with the Titanium Ranger being the secret unlockable character. We kick things off with the intro of the show before going to the title screen. Get used to having the Lightspeed Rescue theme stuck in your head because in this game you're going to hear it a lot.
At the beginning of each stage you'll be shown a series of clips taken from the live action show before finally reaching the level itself. Before you can get to the action however, you receive a quick mission briefing by your commanding officer, Captain Mitchell and Miss Fairweather who lets you know what you're up against, if there's anyone that needs rescuing or anything you need to destroy. The information they give you can be repetitive though...
It's your pretty basic beat 'em up; you punch, kick, block, jump, roll left or right. Until you clear an area you're unable to move on to the next one in the stage. The weird thing about that is even if it's telling you the area you're in isn't cleared you can still trigger, for example, the next mini boss fight but won't be able to reach him so he'll just be standing there until you clear the area you're already in. If the area isn't cleared why have the mini boss appear at all?
The game allows you to play either single player or multiplayer, the difficulty setting going from easy, normal to hard. What strikes me odd about the difficulty setting in this game is that if you choose easy you don't get every level in the game. It leaves out the final level. It reminds me of Castlevania 64 where if you play it on easy you only get five of the ten levels in the game. This one isn't as bad as that but why leave out a stage based solely on the difficulty setting? I understand wanting people to beat the game on a stronger difficulty in order to unlock something but not leave out a part of the game entirely because of it.
One positive note about the game is, if you're a fan of the show, it has all the actors reprising their roles for the voices so it really does make you feel like you're a part of the team while playing. This is more or less really a game for the fans of the show, if you're not a Lightspeed Rescue fan at all this isn't a game you're going to be playing much of. Despite everything it's not the most challenging game you'll ever play either, even on Hard Mode I was still able to beat it on my own without too much of a fuss so if you're one for challenges you wouldn't get too much out of it.
No, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is just a fun game for fans of the show to enjoy but that isn't to say someone out there who's never heard of the show couldn't enjoy it. If you enjoy platformers, action and beat 'em uppers then you may very well enjoy this game regardless of how easy it is to trigger something while still being stuck in an uncleared area, lack of challenge you may find while playing it or the fact you've never seen the actual show.
In other words if you have some time to kill, IT'S MORPHING TIME! LIGHTSPEED RESCUE!
No they don't really say “it's morphing time” beforehand but wouldn't it be so much cooler if they did?
