There have been quite a few Power Rangers video games over the course of the franchise’s 30-plus-year run, with things beginning in 1994 with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers SNES side-scroller. Since then, the franchise has expanded into fighting games, 3D action games, plug-and-play games, mobile games, and crossover collaborations with franchises like Street Fighter, Fortnite, and ARK: Survival Ascended. There is one game, however, that fans had wanted for years, and 7 years ago, not only did it finally happen, but it absolutely delivered.
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In 2017, the franchise teamed up with nWay to launch Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, which was a mobile fighting game that utilized the entire franchise’s history in terms of characters. The combat was fun, and the roster was amazing, which is why fans constantly clamored for a full console fighting game. In 2019, they finally got their wish, as nWay and Lionsgate Games delivered a console fighting game titled Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, and while there was even more potential for the game, it delivered a fantastic fighting game experience for longtime fans of the franchise.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Combined Fun Battles and Ultimate Fan Service
The studio had already proved it could adapt Power Rangers characters across the franchise and turn them into thrilling fighting game characters, and that included more than just Rangers, with villains also joining the fray. The studio took that and ran with it in Battle for the Grid, but none of it works if the core gameplay isn’t fun. Thankfully, the gameplay delivered, featuring a rich combo system, thrilling 3 vs 3 tag matches, and Megazord assists that brought some scale to the festivities.
The system was easy to jump into but also rewarded practice and skill the more time you devoted to its various mechanics and features. You were able to consume a bar of your Super meter to unleash EX attacks, while two bars of your Super meter were used to unleash extremely powerful Super attacks. You could then go one step further and unleash a Megazord Ultra attack after the revenge gauge filled up, and these could do incredible damage to your opponent.
Each character felt distinct and rewarded a different style of play, and the roster took advantage of the then 25 years of history. While the roster pulled from Mighty Morphin, it also brought in characters from Lost Galaxy, S.P.D., Zeo, Time Force, Megaforce, Jungle Fury, Samurai, Mystic Force, the 2017 movie, and the comics universe.
If you look at the roster, it’s kind of amazing that we got a lineup that includes Jason (Mighty Morphin), Ranger Slayer (BOOM! Studios Comics), Billy (2017 Movie), Shadow Ranger (S.P.D.), Jen Scotts (Time Force), Lord Zedd (Mighty Morphin), Poisandra (Dino Charge), and Lord Drakkon, and that’s just a fraction of the available fighters. The game even received a Street Fighter collaboration where icons like Ryu and Chun-Li were made into Power Rangers.
On the Megazord side of things, the game featured the original Dino Megazord, but also featured Mega Goldar, the Samurai Megazord, the S.P.D. Delta Squad Megazord, the Dragonzord, and even the Gravezord from the comics. As for levels, fans got locations from all across the timeline, including the Command Center (Mighty Morphin), Corinth (RPM), Planet Earth (2017 Movie), Delta Base (S.P.D.), and Harwood County (Megaforce).
Across 4 seasons of DLC, more fighters were added to the game, as were additions to the gameplay and locations. The game was mostly positively received, though there was certainly room for growth in a sequel or more updates. Even just looking at the state of the game when the DLC releases ended, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid delivered a fantastic fighting game that the fandom had been hoping to play for some time, and it deserves some praise.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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