The level design is downright poor with so much repetition that it may make you feel as if you are playing the same few levels over and over again. Each level consists of moving left to right with the same few objectives of “Defeat all the enemies,” “Find every Gosei Medal,” and “Survive for 60 Seconds.” There is absolutely no change from this as you play through the game, outside of a few Megazord fight stages, which are decent. There are separate Robo Knight levels, but for the most part they are about the same as the others, just with less damage taken per hit to make up for the lack of other rangers.
As alluded in some of the previous sections, the game is about as easy a game as you will ever play. There are two difficulty options, Normal and Hard, but there is very little difference in the two that I could tell. The game is made beyond easy due to the ability to switch between all five rangers, and each one having its own health bar. The only difficulty at all you will face in this game is due to a very useless mechanic that will bring in only one ranger to complete a certain objective such as “Defeat all the enemies.” This ruins the flow of the game way too often and it seems like it is only done as a tactic to try to add a little difficulty to the game, but it really doesn’t make the game that much harder. Honestly, just about the only time you may die in the game is it you forget to switch rangers due to boredom and are not really paying attention.
Power Rangers Megaforce does introduce a card scanning mechanic to the mix, which is actually a pretty neat addition. This allows you to utilize the 3DS camera to scan cards from the official trading card game to power-up your characters in the game. If you buy the game new, you will also receive a free Megaforce Power Rangers card, which is a cool little addition for both those that collect the cards and those that do not.
While many of the things discussed above were terrible, these is one element of this game that made me downright angry on a constant basis, the commentary throughout the entire game by the rangers. Power Rangers Megaforce features some of the most annoying use of sound I’ve ever seen in any game. As you move throughout the game, you will have the rangers saying the same exact phrases over and over again, with no stopping between each comment. The Pink Ranger will tell you to “break it to see what’s inside.”
This would be fine for a first stage tutorial; however, she continues to say the same exact thing for the entire game on almost every single box you come across. There was a point of the game where I just had to turn the audio down as I couldn’t handle listening to any more without losing my mind. Really the only escape from this abomination are the RoboKnight stages where the only commentary is an occasional comment by Gosei.
Perhaps one of the only redeeming elements of the game is something not even Megaforce related, the ability to unlock the original five Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers to fight with instead. This is only a superficial addition as there is nothing new with their attacks being the exact same. Just like with the Megaforce Pink Ranger, the Mighty Morphin’ Pink Ranger holds onto her Power Bow, but instead uses her kick attacks. This is a nice little addition for longtime fans of the series or even people who only watched the original seasons.
Power Rangers Megaforce is far from a “Mega Win,” as the characters in the show would say, with way too many issues plaguing the side-scroller. The game is extremely easy, even on Hard mode, with every level seeming like a repeat of the last. Boss battles, usually a strong element of the genre, are uninspired to the point that they hardly differ from the normal fights with Loogies. The commentary throughout is perhaps the worst I’ve ever seen in a game, to where calling it repetitive would be the understatement of the century. Even as a game for kids, this one just doesn’t deliver the way a Power Rangers game should. With the heights that some games in the genre have reached, including past Power Rangers games, Power Rangers Megaforce feels like a disappointment as the only fun you will likely have with the game is in short play sessions.
[Editor’s Note: Power Rangers Megaforce was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]