Super MEH Force
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a 3 on 3 beat ’em up with a pool of 8 playable fighters, that hits my Ranger heart in the right way. I get to be the red and green ranger and… hmm… who are all these other fighters? I do know Goldar, but that is it. So I can only assume that the other characters must be from Power Rangers series that I did not see. Which is fair enough, but reduced the pull for me personally. We have yellow whip person, pink bow ranger, black minigun ranger, evil dragon white ranger and whoever that other big thing is supposed to be.
Meh-AZORD mechanics
The fighting mechanics in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid are basic, solid but without any surprises. Light, medium, hard hit, grab and two kinds of super buttons. In theory that should be enough, when executed properly, to create an exciting deep fighter. Sadly the developers made all characters feel very much the same. Light, light, medium combo until the super meter is full, execute super and repeat. That is how I won all the fights. The movements all also feel slightly off, offline and online, as if there was a weird delay.
Story? Helloooo???
Now, this would be forgivable if there was a Ranger style story mode that shows why we are fighting and have that over the top goofy dialogue that we Ranger fans love. I looked all over, even in Rita’s prison on the moon, but could not find a story. Only in the last 3 of 8 arcade mode stages are there tiny bits of story delivered via text. The developers could have at least get someone to do the voice-over work for the 6 sentences that are there. That way it would have felt in some way meaningful.
Meh-does
The modes also deliver a standard selection with ranked, casual, arcade and training. It also has ONE customisation option, with banners you can unlock for doing specifics things. You have to finish the arcade mode with every character as the number 1 character in your team of 3. It does not seem to matter who is in the number 2 and 3 spot, as the game will only count who is in the number 1 spot to have finished the arcade mode. Seeing that this game feels very inspired by the old kind of fighter, it is very surprising that you do not unlock a new character for finishing the arcade with each individual character.
There are graphics!
The graphics of the characters of the game are solid, for a fighting game. The characters are look like they do on the show, because the level of detail of each character is fairly decent. The backgrounds sadly are devoid of any life and could haven’t been made to feel more generic and less exciting if they were a blank white room.
Y U no play online?
I was unable to test the online capabilities of the game, due to it not finding any matchable players at various occasions. That is why Online did not receive a rating at this point in time.
Super Mega middle of the road ultra Ranger force!
All in all, this is a very middle of the line, meh fighter with no surprises. It fails to go the extra mile for Power Rangers and fighting game fans alike. I would suggest staying away.
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