Back in the early 90’s, my little brothers were very young but they still enjoyed watching Power Rangers, which was new at the time. I can’t believe that Power Rangers is still on TV, and now you can play a game based on the latest version of the show: Power Rangers: Megaforce, on your 3DS.

As expected, the game is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up. Players can attack with punches, kicks, and weapons with one button, and shoot their blasters with another, as well as jump and double jump. On the bottom screen, you can tap on a Ranger to switch to them. Rangers not on screen will slowly regain their energy, so it’s important to swap out Rangers when low on power. If you run out of energy with one Ranger, you’ll have to start the stage over again. Every so often you’ll have to fight a giant boss in your huge robot, but the gameplay remains fairly similar.

Apparently the game has kind of a card motif, as you collect them in the game. Some give you special attacks if you activate them on the touch screen, such as a blast of fire. You have a limited number of times you can use these cards, so you’ll need to collect power cards as you play so you can fill up your meter to use more. The game utilizes the 3DS camera for some added features, too. You can scan real life Power Rangers trading cards (the game even comes with one) to unlock more goodies. You can also take a picture of yourself so it looks like you are morphing into a Ranger in the game. Unlock new picture frames and character bios, too, by completing levels and other objectives. The game itself is pretty basic and would only interest young die-hard Power Rangers fans, though.

Kid Factor:

Power Rangers: Megaforce is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence. You can punch, kick, and use martial arts weapons and laser guns against enemies, but they just fall over and disappear when defeated. If you’re OK with your kids watching the TV show, they’ll be OK with the game, too. Reading skill is helpful for the menus, but not always needed as most of the levels are fully voiced (it gets kind of irritating, actually). And while the game is mostly fairly simple, there are a few annoying sections where younger players may need a bit of help.

Tags: Game Reviews, Television