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Showing posts with label Power Rangers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Power Rangers. Show all posts
PREVIEW -- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid - Lauren Shiba (Red Samurai Ranger)
Red Samurai Ranger enters the Grid Sept 15, 2020! Lauren Shiba, the Red Samurai Ranger, will join the fight on September 15th as the second DLC character in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Season 3. Contents available today from Season 3 include Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger Robert “RJ” James, Phantom Beast King character skin for Dai Shi (exclusive to Season 3 Pass), and Samurai Megazord.
Stay tuned for more information about our soon to-be-revealed final character for Season 3.
Website: https://battleforthegrid.com/
Facebook: @Powerrangersbattleforthegrid
Twitter: @Battle4TheGrid
Instagram: @powerrangersbattleforthegrid
After seeing her gameplay trailer above and seeing Maximillian stream a lot of her gameplay last night on his stream/channel, she looks like another solid addition to the game's growing roster. I'm bummed out that Kimberley Crossman couldn't lend her voice to the game to reprise her role as the character, but whoever her replacement is doesn't sound good at all. I'm sorry but it just doesn't. It blows my mind that this game is half-assing in terms of getting actors and actresses to reprise the roles of these characters for this game. You would think that they would be kicking down the doors to get at some of video game money. It's not like a lot of these actors do much after Power Rangers anyway. Not trying to be funny, but that's the truth for a majority of actors that appear in this franchise that don't use it as a launching pad to other acting gigs pretty much disappear into obscurity. To this day, I still feel bad for Crossman in general as Lauren Shiba doesn't appear in Power Rangers Samurai/Super Samurai until the final SIX episodes of that series' entire run. Despite the fact that she's the first female Red Ranger (technically Alpha Squad's SPD Red Ranger, Charlie, from Power Rangers SPD is the first, but Samurai chronologically takes place first in the timeline), she couldn't be marketed as such as her entire reveal/introduction would ruin the entire series' plot for those two seasons of Samurai.
As a character in-game, Lauren seems like another powerhouse addition to the roster. She deals a lot of damage with her combos, much like RJ/Jungle Fury Purple Wolf Ranger, but it seems like that she's a heavy execution character - at least that's what impression I was given from watching Maximillian playing her and his comments about a lot of her 1-frame links and cancels/links into other moves. Regardless, she seems like a solid addition to anyone's team in this game.
I don't understand why the developers keep acting like it's a big mystery that Scorpina is the final character.
REVIEW -- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a fighting game developed by San Francisco-based game developer nWay, featuring characters from the Power Rangers franchise. It was released digitally for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2019, for PlayStation 4 on April 2, 2019, for Microsoft Windows on September 24, 2019, and for Stadia on June 1, 2020. Limited Run Games released a standard physical version on the Switch and PlayStation 4 alongside a more expensive Mega Edition in November 2019.
Characters:
The game features twelve playable characters, with nine additional characters available as downloadable content via three season passes.
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| Dragon Armor Trini (MMPR Yellow Ranger), Udonna (Power Rangers Mystic Force White Mystic Ranger), Cenozoic Blue Ranger (Power Rangers 2017 movie Blue Ranger) |
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| Jen Scotts (Power Rangers Time Force Pink Ranger), Trey of Triforia (Power Rangers Zeo Gold Ranger I), Lord Zedd (MMPR) |
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| Anubis "Doggie" Cruger (Power Rangers S.P.D. Shadow Ranger), Eric Myers (Power Rangers Time Force Quantum Red Ranger), Dai Shi (Power Rangers Jungle Fury) |
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| Robert "RJ" James (Power Rangers Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger), Lauren Shiba (Power Rangers Super Samurai Red Samurai Ranger II), ?? (My guess is Scorpina from the silhouette) |
Jason Lee Scott - MMPR Red Ranger I/MMPR Red Ranger Dragon Shield
Trini Kwan - MMPR Yellow Ranger I Dragon Armor*
Kimberly Ann Hart - Ranger Slayer/MMPR Pink Ranger I
Tommy Oliver - MMPR Green Ranger I/MMPR Green Ranger I V2/MMPR White Ranger
Goldar
Lord Zedd** (Season Pass 1)
Trey of Triforia - Zeo Gold Ranger I** (Season Pass 1)
Mike Corbett - Magna Defender II
Jen Scotts - Time Force Pink Ranger** (Season Pass 1)
Eric Myers - Time Force Quantum Ranger** (Season Pass 2)
Anubis "Doggie" Cruger - S.P.D. Shadow Ranger** (Season Pass 2)
Kat Manx - S.P.D. Kat Ranger
Udonna - Mystic Force White Ranger*
Robert "RJ" James - Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger** (Season Pass 3)
"Jarrod"/Dai Shi - Black Lion Warrior** (Season Pass 2)
Lauren Shiba - Samurai Red Ranger II** (Season Pass 3)
Gia Moran - Super Megaforce Yellow Ranger
Mastodon Sentry
Lord Drakkon/Drakkon EVO II
Cenozoic Blue Ranger I*
* Added via free post-launch update
** Paid downloadable content character; number denotes which season pass the character is included in
The Plot:
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are training in the Command Center when it is breached by Lord Drakkon, an alternate future version of Tommy Oliver trained by Rita Repulsa who killed her and the other Rangers in his dimension. Despite the arrival of Time Force Ranger Jen Scotts from the future, Drakkon manages to kill the younger Tommy and escapes. With his Chaos Crystal now charged by Tommy's green chaos energy, Drakkon and his forces begin travelling across time and space, using his Dragon Cannons to remove Rangers' powers and steal their morphers. Zordon sends a warning through the Morphin Grid and, with Jen's help, begins sending Rangers through time to protect other Rangers being pursued by Drakkon.
During an encounter with the Ranger Slayer, a future version of herself from Drakkon's universe, Kimberly Hart manages to free her from Drakkon's control, though Ranger Slayer continues to feign loyalty to avert suspicion. The Rangers regroup at Corinth, where Dr. K is working on a way to disrupt the Dragon Cannons, but they come under attack by Drakkon's forces, including several Power Rangers placed under his control. Drakkon, who has powered himself up using the stolen morphers, arrives and overwhelms the Rangers, forcing them to retreat to the Command Center. Ranger Slayer arrives and reveals Drakkon's plan is to gain full control of the Morphin Grid and rewrite reality, using the morphers to increase his resonance with it. She suggests destroying his tower in their home dimension, preventing him from crossing dimensions and sharing his morphers' powers with his armies. Knowing they will be unable to do so alone, Zordon asks Rita to help stop Drakkon.
Led by Jason Lee Scott, a united group of Power Rangers storms Drakkon's tower. They are attacked by Drakkon and the Rangers under his control, but Mike Corbett is freed by the spirit of the Magna Defender and defects back to Zordon's forces. Rita infiltrates the tower and uses a Powerdraining Candle to weaken Drakkon, forcing him to retreat to stop her. Trini Kwan uses her Dragon Armor to grow and topple the tower's antennae, causing Drakkon's forces to lose their powers and breaking his control of the other Rangers. Rita attempts to kill Drakkon, but his minion Finster-5 disarms her and the other Rangers. Finster-5 attempts to stop Drakkon from using additional morphers to restore his powers, believing the process will be fatal, but Drakkon kills him and proceeds. As he powers himself up, he is challenged by Tommy, restored to life through the Chaos Crystal's powers. Tommy defeats Drakkon, whose body has become unstable due to the morphers' power, and he escapes as Drakkon explodes, destroying himself and the tower. Zordon thanks all the Rangers for their help, and Ranger Slayer reassures Tommy that he will never become like Drakkon thanks to his bonds with his team.
Gameplay:
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a fighting game in which players compete in battle using characters with different fighting styles and special attacks. Players select teams of three characters to engage in one-on-one combat, and can choose to switch between them at any point during the match. When all three opposing teammates have been eliminated a Victory is declared. Ultra attacks can also be performed, calling on Megazords to assist with the battle.
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| One of the early ads for the game listing features available at launch. |
Ranked Online, Arcade, Versus, Casual Online, Training and Tutorial modes were available at the game's launch. A story mode, loosely based on the "Shattered Grid" storyline and written by Boom! Studios Power Rangers comic book writer Kyle Higgins, was added to the game in April 2019 along with three additional characters, voice acting and two new stages. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers actors Jason David Frank, Austin St. John, David J. Fielding and Kerrigan Mahan reprise their respective roles as Tommy Oliver/Lord Drakkon, Jason Lee Scott, Zordon and Goldar. An update in July 2019 added three characters via the first Season Pass, and additional features such as cross-platform play between the Switch Xbox One, and Windows versions; cross-platform support for PlayStation 4 was added via a later update in February 2020, making it the first fighting game of the eighth generation of video game consoles to support fully platform-agnostic multiplayer. A second season pass was announced alongside the game's Windows release. A third season of content was announced on May 25, 2020.
The Verdict:
After divulging about seven years of my gaming life into playing Street Fighter IV at the competitive level, I honestly burnt myself out on the fighting game genre by the time Ultra Street Fighter IV and then Street Fighter V dropped shortly thereafter. That being said, I still dabble here and there on an occasional new fighter that peaks my interest, such as Tekken 7, Soul Calibur VI, Injustice 2, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Gundam Versus, or even the recent Guilty Gear Xrd -STRIVE- beta to boot. My personal issue is that a lot of these games don't hold my interest long before I go back to playing something else, especially with the sheer complexity and/or time sink required to truly master these games.
With Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, I didn't run into that problem in the least. This is a VERY simple fighter to pick up and play for all skill levels, whether you are a seasoned pro at the genre or casual newcomer. You won't find any complex button inputs to perform special moves and attacks. Instead, everything is simplified, much like in the Super Smash Bros. series. That simplicity made me want to try out every character instead of shying away from others and keeping to the ones that I felt "safe" with in terms of the least amount of complex inputs to memorize and master.
I know the "hardcore" mindset of the FGC (fighting game community) tends to hear "simplicity" with dread as it tends to create an "EZ Mode" that rewards players lacking skill, but I have been always of the mindset of why do we have this artificial barrier of entry for this "elitist" club of players who bitch and moan about wanting more players to join it? Remove that artificial barrier and you would have more players willing and wanting to stick it out with your game for the long haul. The main reason that the first person shooter genre isn't going anywhere anytime soon is that they don't require any complex button inputs nor forces players to invest into a $100+ specialized controller/fightstick just to be somewhat competitive with the online environment. There isn't any artificial barriers of entry, which allows players to invest in the strategic aspect of gameplay instead of worrying about landing complex inputs with flawless precision. Right off the bat, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid sold me onto this game with the lack of any of that. I was excited to suggest this game to not only all of the Power Rangers fans - old and new - that I personally knew, but to gamers in general that I thought would enjoy this game.
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| Summon your Megazord! |
The gameplay combines the good of what we know and love from the Marvel vs. Capcom series with its tag team gameplay, but keeps things fresh enough in terms of the leniency and accessibly of the combo system to deal massive amounts of damage with relative ease. It's to be expected that a game like this would have "touch of death" combos, but there wasn't a single moment that I didn't feel like I couldn't come back in a match - at least in some capacity as long as I had the comeback mechanic in term of the Megazords that are available when you construct your team(s). Your Megazord meter can be used to summon your team's Megazord to rain down devastating attacks on your opponents, lock them down for potential mix-ups for your own team's combos, or even be used to counter another team's Megazord with the right timing at the cost of your own meter. Like any other "good" Versus title, there's also Snapbacks to force in a specific teammate into battle and Push Blocking to deal with rushdown-heavy combatants.
If I had any gripe about Push Blocking, it's the same issue that I had with it in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as people will take FULL advantage of you mashing for it during blockstrings and whiff/delay the combos on purpose, thus setting you up in some highly disadvantageous situations. In those situations, it's not a design flaw with the game, but just a hurdle each player has to adapt to within those unique situations.
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| Send down the Putty Patrol! |
Each character has an EX move (a more powerful version of one of their trademark attacks that costs 1 bar of super meter) and a Super Move unique to that character that deals massive damage at the cost of 2 bars of super meter.
The biggest disservice to this game and the 25+ year history of the Power Rangers franchise as a whole is the size of this roster. By default, there are only 4 seasons (2 seasons of Mighty Morphin while 1 season of Lost Galaxy, Super Megaforce, and S.P.D respectfully) represented in this game if you didn't purchase any of the downloadable content nor download the characters that were added for free following launch. I had the pleasure of picking this up while it was on sale, along with Season Passes 1 & 2 as part of one of the many PlayStation Network sales going on this summer. Otherwise, there's no way in hell I would have shelled out the cash for this game at launch if I knew how small this in-game roster was. Fortunately, the physical disk version of the game is set to release in October 2020 with every fighter to date available, along with the upcoming release of Lauren Shiba (Power Rangers Samurai Red Ranger II) and the remainder of Season Pass 3's DLC content.
That being said, it's still pretty jarring to know that Power Rangers has been around this long and there's little representation across the board for a lot of the seasons in that franchise's history, especially with some of the modern outings, such as Ninja Steel and Beast Morphers - which is currently airing on Nickelodeon.
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| This is only a FRACTION of the characters in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars. Explain to me why we couldn't get a sizable roster like this game did? |
The small roster feels like a complete slap to the face, especially when you compare it to the in-game roster of Power Rangers: Legacy Wars. To make it more jarring, Legacy Wars was developed by nWay who worked on this game as well with the major difference being that game was made for mobile platforms and this was made with gaming consoles and PC in mind, despite the similar visuals. I would LOVE to see the wealth of those characters come into this game sooner more than later.
This is a VERY minor gripe, but I was bummed out that I couldn't swap out certain Rangers for their Super Sentai equivalents - namely Gia from Super Megaforce for Luka Millfy (Gokai Yellow) from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger - instead of their traditional Power Rangers iterations. I guess I would have to hunt down some of the various import Super Sentai video games if I want to see any sort of representation from those teams in any capacity.
Story Mode
I can't say that I was too impressed with this story, especially having read the BOOM! Comics of the same name. They took some "creative" differences in terms of adapting this story for this video game. I'm guessing it's for the same reasons that Injustice: Gods Among Us have done with their video games as it's to not to heavily rely on the source material for they have a bit of freedom and wiggle room in future updates and expansions to the lore and sequels to the video game.
The Story Mode in this game isn't much to write home about, but I cleared all three Acts within the span of two and a half hours casually in one sitting. I have linked my complete playthrough stream archive of that gameplay below.
Once again, this story is hindered by the massive disservice that this game's in-game roster provides. You're left fighting the same grunts and henchmen for Lord Drakkon over and over again, along with some "brainwashed" Rangers littered in-between. I couldn't tell you how many times I grew sick of fighting Mastodon Sentries and Goldar on a repeated basis. If I didn't genuinely like the gameplay of this game, along with these characters in this continuity, then I honestly wouldn't have bothered playing this to its conclusion just from the sheer redundancy of it all.
I can't give them a pass on not representing a lot of the characters from the very same Mighty Morphin continuity that this story takes place in. Billy and Zack are oddly absence for majority of this story, despite the Mastodon Sentries being in the game along with the Cenozoic Blue Ranger. They could have re-skinned those characters for something, narrative-wise. I thought it was in bad taste that they got a poor imitation for Barbara Goodson's Rita Repulsa too, but I was saddened that Robert Axelrod died before Lord Zedd's inclusion into the game. Sadly, Zedd has absolutely no presence at all in this narrative, but at least they found a way to give Rita a prominent role.
On the positive side, the story does allow you to play roughly every fighter available in the game by default without any of the Season Passes, so that was a plus in that regard. A lot of the DLC characters are either shown in the background during cutscenes, so they have a place in the narrative to some extent.
Arcade & Training Modes
The Training Mode/Tutorials give players a sense of how to play the game from beginner techniques, such as movement and basic attacks, before graduating to advanced techniques, such as push blocking and breaking throws. The tutorial ends with a full blown match against the AI, putting everything that you have learned to work. The tutorial isn't as robust as the one for Killer Instinct or Skullgirls, but it's better than nothing at all which you usually tend to get from Vs. titles like this.
Arcade Mode scraps a lot of the redundancy from the Story Mode and recycles the same pre-fight lines for every battle in 7 battles back to back until you face Goldar (along with his Mastodon Sentries), Ranger Slayer (along with her Mastodon Sentries), and finally Lord Drakkon himself as the final boss. Each of those "boss" encounters have text dialogue exchanged between the key characters, but don't have any sort of any unique endings after defeating Lord Drakkon. In that aspect, it's a bit of a letdown, especially for the characters who don't get much action over the course of the Story Mode. The lack of voices to those dialogues came off as really lazy and half-assed to me in that regard, especially when the Story Mode was a post-launch addition. They could have done something more with the few Power Rangers alumni that provided their voices for this game.
The lackluster effort put into this mode reminds me a lot of how not just Street Fighter V (which got bombarded with criticism for it - rightfully so if I may add...) but a lot of modern fighters tend to neglect this aspect of offline/single player play. It's been said time and time again that these games and genre as a whole cannot thrive off of the "hardcore" competitive player base forever. Mortal Kombat 9 - along with almost every new fighting game that NetherRealm Studios puts their hands on - has a wealth of single player and multiplayer content to please casual and hardcore players. This idea that the developers think that they can hand players an incomplete game and allow players to "fund" it's progression to its "true" completion with season passes is getting to the point where it's beyond ridiculous. We are three seasons into this game and I think it's comical that this game is still lacking in a lot of pivotal content.
Online Matches
Despite all of these shortcomings, I want to praise this title's online component. I played through the online Ranked Matches until I hit Platinum League to get a proper assessment of the online environment. Long story short? This game has an EXCELLENT online netcode. That's amazing, especially when this game has cross-platform play across PC and all current generation consoles. Outside of a few random disconnections due to server errors and/or sore losers, I never ran into a match that was so littered with lag that I felt the matches were unplayable. I am more surprised that there's a healthy online component for this game period, especially when the genre has so many options available at gamers' disposal. More developers in the genre need to take note with the marvels that have been done with Power Rangers' netcode. It doesn't matter how great your game is offline when players can't enjoy it online, especially now more than ever when players are forced to play at home instead of in-person due to the current global pandemic.
I firmly believe that more fighting games should adopt rollback netcode or GGPO for their fighting games instead of the tired and true delay based netcode that the industry seems to constantly rely on. I have played a lot of fighting games over the last two console generations and this is easily the best online experience I have had out of any of those games to date.
Play It or Don't Bother?
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| Assemble your crew. |
If you're a fan of Power Rangers, definitely give this a look, but you might be disappointed that your favorite season in the franchise isn't represented. As it stands currently, I wouldn't purchase this game for what it retails for at $20+ digitally as you're getting a pretty basic bare-bones fighting game for the digital pricing, but the physical disk release in October is shaping up to be the game that SHOULD have been released when this game initially launched.. The digital pricing is a complete rip-off when the individual Season Passes go for $15 each ($45 total for all three) when they aren't on sale. You're better off waiting for the physical release of the game that is set to release on October 8, 2020 that gives you EVERYTHING right out of the box - Season Passes 1-3 along with all of the extra costume skins and DLC add-on characters - for the flat price of $30.
This game doesn't have "auto-combos" that many casual players enjoyed in Dragon Ball FighterZ, but does have the traditional "magic series" (chaining button presses from Low, Medium, and Heavy attacks in succession for simplified combos) combos found in Capcom's Vs. series. On the positive side, if you're looking for a fighting game that anyone of all skill levels could jump into in the same vein of Super Smash Bros. series' style of inputs, you can't go wrong with this game. There's no Dragon Punch/Shoryuken, Tiger Knee commands, nor strict frame perfect precise inputs in this game. As it stands currently, the only "complex" inputs are jump-cancellable attacks and that's not "required" for the long-term enjoyment of this game.
That being said, this game isn't going to be for everyone. If you want to try the bare bones version first, I humbly suggest waiting for one of the digital sales on PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, or Nintendo's eShop before full investing into the title. If you do decide to take a chance on this fighter, you'll find one of the most rewarding combo systems that I have had the pleasure of experimenting with in recent memory, only bested by Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite's combo system (despite all of the negativity surrounding that game since launch), with an excellent online netcode that allows players to find other players of all skill levels to test your skills against.
It's a tough call, but I genuinely had a blast with this game and was pleasantly surprised at the gameplay - both online and offline, despite the various shortcomings that I have mentioned. Sadly, this is a game that needs more support to become what it SHOULD be, especially for a game that is allegedly honoring the 25+ year history of the Power Rangers franchise. Much like Power Rangers Super Megaforce, this is a labor of love that has good intentions, but needs some polish before being truly great.
A List of Some Pretty Awesome Fan-Made Games From Your Favorite Beloved Properties
I was sorting through my various bookmarks saved when I reinstalled Chrome and Opera on my laptop after having to replace the hard drive and noticed that I had a bunch of these fan-made games compiled that I was either keeping tabs on their development progress or had them bookmarked to try out for myself whenever I got a chance.
Before I get into any legal trouble for bringing awareness to this games on this blog, I don't endorse piracy, but that's your own choice if you seek out these games for your own profit or personal gain. I don't gain any profit nor benefit for shedding light about these labors of love from my fellow gamers. I just want to enlighten my readers on some of these excellent byproducts out there.
AM2R: Another Metroid II Remake
I personally consider AM2R the definitive Metroid II: Return of Samus remake and the main reason Nintendo got off their asses to do Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS. You can still find copies of this online floating around, but Nintendo has done one hell of a job hounding every website and host client to take down the files. This is the only game on this list that I personally had a chance to review in-depth actually.
I personally think that if you're a Metroid fan in any capacity that you should go out of your way to play this "remake" of sorts. DoctorM64's work on this game landed him a job with Moon Studios (creators of Ori and the Blind Forest) and he definitely deserved it with the impressive visual resume he displayed his talents within this fan-made game.
He-Man & She-Ra The Video Game
bWWd, a name that you're going to hear about again throughout this post, developed this fan-made game in the same vein of classic 2D beat 'em ups, but with the look and feel of the Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power cartoon series.
bWWd is still doing regular bug fixes and adding additional characters as of this posting.
Hyper Dragon Ball Z
Before Dragon Ball FighterZ was a gleam in the eye of Arc System Works, there was this game that essentially took everything that players loved about traditional '90s era 2D fighters (namely Capcom) and developed this game to satisfy that craving for something different than what was being offered from the tired and true Budokai series. This game came out in 2014 and still stands as the prime example of what could be done with the DBZ license if passionate fans were behind it.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2018 and we got that with Dragon Ball FighterZ. Hell, Arc System Works need to be thanking these guys (Z2 and the community effort behind this game) as far as I'm concerned.
For those wondering, this game was made out of the MUGEN engine and isn't the only one of it's kind as there's a Naruto game floating around in the same vein as this too.
Maverick Hunter X: Giga Mission (WIP)
This is a strange twist on Mega Man's iconic gameplay. This game takes everything that we love about Mega Man and turns into a 2D beat 'em up set in the Mega Man X timeline - specifically after the controversial Command Mission video game. The game is still pretty early in development, but I personally love what I'm seeing so far. You can follow it's ongoing progress in development over on it's Twitter account.
Mega Maker
In the same vein as the popular Super Mario Maker, you can create your own Mega Man levels.
Despite it's initial release, the game is still in development and receiving ongoing updates/fixes.
Mega Man 2.5D
Mega Man 2.5D is an unofficial fan-made game created by Peter Sjöstrand and Edgar Cebolledo.
The project began in 2009 as an animated mockup. Due to the positive response to it, development began on an actual playable version. The main aspect that sets the game apart from other Mega Man games is the Co-op Mode, which has two players fight side by side in order to get through the game. Another thing that's different in Mega Man 2.5D is the use of changing camera perspectives, which is featured heavily in the single-player mode of the game. Because of these game mechanics, Mega Man 2.5D features separate level designs for its co-op and single-player modes.
The idea is to have Mega Man 2.5D be a "greatest hits" type game that brings back stages and bosses from various Mega Man games, while at the same time putting a new spin on them.
Mega Man Unlimited
This game was created by MegaPhilX as a pseudo-sequel to Mega Man 9 as a bridge between the classic Mega Man series and Mega Man X series. In development, the legitimate Mega Man 10 was announced by Capcom, so a lot of things in-game had to be changed as a result. One funny thing to point out is that Capcom accidentally used some screenshots and media from this game for the marketing for Mega Man 10 in some media outlets, thinking it was the same game.
Zero appears in this game as the final boss as the "Z-Prototype" and is actually playable in an alternate adventure. The plot is similar to Mega Man 10's Roboenza viral outbreak spreading across Dr. Wily's Robot Masters, forcing Dr. Light and Dr. Wily to join forces to develop a cure. This virus is more akin to the Maverick Virus that is commonly known in the X series that causes Reploids to develop violent tendencies and go maverick.
I kept tabs on this game as I personally thought this was an excellent way to explore and bridge the lore for the classic and X series - something that Capcom themselves hasn't done to this day outside of sprinkling breadcrumbs throughout the later entries of the X series prior to Inafune's departure from the company.
Mega Man X: Corrupted (WIP)
Mega Man X: Corrupted is an unofficial, fan-made game by John K. Bacchus (also known as JKB) coded in AS3 using Flex compiler on Flash Develop. The game is modeled after the MMX series' features and gameplay, in the graphic style of the SNES Mega Man X games, with a non-linear interconnected environment, and skill trees to enhance characters and weapons.
Unlike standard MM and MMX titles with boss selection, the game uses a non-linear structure similar to the ones in MMZ1 or ZX games, effectively referred to as the Final Four Effect.
After completing the intro stage, you start in the hunter base and are tasked with stopping the eight Mavericks, but with your current equipment you can only reach three. Upon each of their defeat either you gain a weapon that allows you to travel somewhere new, or the Maverick's destruction causes something to change in the world and grant new places to explore. Examples of such would be Force Starfish, who gives you a weapon that can break hard blocks and crystals, and Sparking Scorpio, who relinquishes his energy back to the power plant so all its devices can function. The world is non-linear and many paths are dependent on the defeat of certain bosses.
The Mega Man X: Corrupted Mavericks don't just wait in their boss room for you to come kill them. They have agendas, and they want to make your life miserable. Each and every Maverick has a mission he's on for the first half of the game, and if you don't go after them, they succeed in carrying it out. One example is Warfare Milodon, who has taken over the weapons factory for the purpose of creating new and powerful mechaniloids for his force, and if he's not one of the first four bosses you defeat, he completes his research and elite enemies start appearing in the world, and Milodon himself gains a powerful new attack. This is the case for all of the last four Mavericks remaining, and all have some effect that makes the world harder and their boss fight harder. When in Sigma Class (Σ Class) all effects are active at once.
The Final Four Effects are :
Warfare Milodon - Upgrades the standard enemies, making them stronger and giving them a red paint job similar to Milodon's. Certain enemies also get new special attacks.
Sparking Scorpio - Adds the black out effect on certain areas from some of the stages, reducing visibility. Certain Buster projectiles can produce a light source for a very short amount of time.
Crystal Rafflar - Creates crystal vines on certain stages, restricting the player's movement and reflecting X's buster shots. Some vines also include insta-death spikes.
Plasma Puffer - Corrupts some of the enemies, making them drop poisonous LE/WE/1-UP after they explode. If the player picks up one of the poisonous capsules his LE/WE/Lives will be reduced. The poisonous capsules can also be destroyed by shooting/slashing them.
Force Starfish - Upgrades the mini-bosses (and the Sentinel enemy), making them stronger, upgrading their attacks or even giving them new ones. They also receive a golden-yellow paint job, similar to that of Starfish's.
Warp Vulpex - Creates vortexes in certain areas of the map that will spawn random corrupted enemies.
Hurricane Hoatzin - Creates a storm effect on some of the map's areas that pushes the player back when moving. It also spawns a new type of enemy across the map - the Storm Balloon.
Neurohack Mosquito - Spreads infectious mosquitoes everywhere on the map that will infect a random enemy on sight, increasing their reaction time, health, and damage. They are immune to status effects while infected.
Very little has been revealed about the story, though JKB has confirmed that the game will take place as an alternate time line after Mega Man X5, thus Axl will not make an appearance.
Sadly, this fan-made game has been development for a VERY long time now and the last time I've checked since back in March of this year, there's no release date. JKBGames has been burning the midnight oil with video updates of his progress here and there on his YouTube channel though.
Mushroom Kingdom Fusion (Formerly known as Super Mario MF, then Super Mario Fusion) is a fan game created by Fusion Team. The main engine of the game is based off of Mario, but with many other characters playable including Sonic and Tails. It is a crossover of many video games.
On March 10, 2015, this game has been cancelled due to development issues, but as of 2017, the game has been scrapped completely due to Nintendo's numerous copyright strikes. That being said, there's still some playable builds of this floating around the 'Net, sporting over 50 levels and playable characters. There's a wealth of people still wanting to make this fan game a reality with playable patches and updates to the original demo/build, releasing as recently as May 2019.
I wouldn't mind giving this a shot over those insane Mario Maker levels that you have to be god-tier good at Mario games to beat.
Pokémon Uranium is a fan-made game based on the Pokémon series. The game was in development for nine years, and used the RPG Maker XP engine. The game adds 150 new fan-made species of Pokémon, along with a new region. Similar to the official games, Uranium contains both online trading and online battling.
I'm not even hardcore into Pokemon (not anymore anyway...), yet I've heard about this one. Nintendo has been notorious about shutting down any site that hosts download files for this game, so you're on your own to fish up a copy. Boy, people think Nintendo are on the nuts of the emulation folks as of late, but that doesn't have nothing on how bad they have been hounding the guys who made this game.
This entry looks and plays like a sequel to the SNES/Sega Genesis original Power Rangers video games set in the Mighty Morphin' era of the franchise with sound clips and audio cues from the show.
This was released back on July 24, 2014 by Merso-X, who is getting pretty popular in this article at this point. The update to that initial release, dubbed Beats of Power - Special Edition, released February 25, 2017 as a PC only update that added 4-player local co-op, additional enemies, along with various bug fixes.
Merso-X has a sequel in development, dubbed Beats of Power 2, focusing exclusively on the Power Rangers Zeo series.
A sequel is being developed but rendered in the same visual style as the original Mortal Kombat games. I would love to know how they are animating this without the original cast, unless they are just using the stock footage from the first few seasons. So far this looks awesome.
This sequel is currently in development by Merso-X, who recently finished working on another noteworthy entry at the bottom of this list.
After the lackluster reception of Brawl and then Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, fans got together and developed this title as a proper return to form in the vein of the beloved Melee from back on Gamecube, except with the enhancements to the game brought in with Brawl. This game was so beloved by fans that it became a tournament standard in some major competitive scenes until the almighty (or rather notorious) Nintendo stepped in.
In a bizarre way, I feel that this game is entirely responsible for Smash Ultimate having as many characters that it did along with Nintendo going out of their way to please their player base.
For those worried about possibly damaging their Wii/Wii U's attempting to install and/or run this fan-made game can rest assured that there are plenty of ways to play this legally without tampering with your console.
Out of all of the fan-made games on this list, I believe that this is most recognizable (or rather most popular) one in terms availability and accessibility.
Sonic: After the Sequel is a 2013 platform video game created by Brazilian student Felipe Daneluz (LakeFeperd). It is an unofficial game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series and set between the official games Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Daneluz's second Sonic game, it follows Sonic: Before the Sequel, which set between the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Like its predecessor, After the Sequel stars Sonic the Hedgehog and his sidekick Tails in a quest to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds from Doctor Eggman.
After the Sequel was inspired by Sonic Heroes and other games both inside and outside the Sonic series, and it was developed with Sonic Worlds, an engine based in Multimedia Fusion 2 that reduces the amount of computer programming involved in game creation. It was released as a free download for Microsoft Windows personal computers on June 15, 2013. The game was very well received by video game journalists, who lauded its preservation of retro Sonic gameplay and its eclectic, 1990s-style soundtrack. The trilogy of Before the Sequel, After the Sequel, and their successor Sonic: Chrono Adventure performed unusually well for fangames, having been downloaded 120,000 times by March 2014.
I saw a bit of footage of this game in action and I thought it looked amazing to say that I'm not even too crazy about Sonic's 3D outings if I'm perfectly honest. It seems like that a lot of the mechanics from previous games were implemented here to please old and newer Sonic fans.
Super Thundercats: The Lost Eye of Thundera is a remake of the 1987 game. It features updated graphics and music, smoother gameplay, stages featuring the Thundertank, and a much needed final confrontation against Mumm-Ra (the original game ends abruptly after completing the last stage).
Sadly, this fan-made game has been development for a VERY long time now and the last time I've checked since back in March of this year, there's no release date. JKBGames has been burning the midnight oil with video updates of his progress here and there on his YouTube channel though.
Mushroom Kingdom Fusion
Fusion Gameworks (Developers' Blog)
Discord Server Link (For general info, updates, & reporting bugs)
Mushroom Kingdom Fusion (Formerly known as Super Mario MF, then Super Mario Fusion) is a fan game created by Fusion Team. The main engine of the game is based off of Mario, but with many other characters playable including Sonic and Tails. It is a crossover of many video games.
On March 10, 2015, this game has been cancelled due to development issues, but as of 2017, the game has been scrapped completely due to Nintendo's numerous copyright strikes. That being said, there's still some playable builds of this floating around the 'Net, sporting over 50 levels and playable characters. There's a wealth of people still wanting to make this fan game a reality with playable patches and updates to the original demo/build, releasing as recently as May 2019.
I wouldn't mind giving this a shot over those insane Mario Maker levels that you have to be god-tier good at Mario games to beat.
Pokemon: Uranium
Pokémon Uranium is a fan-made game based on the Pokémon series. The game was in development for nine years, and used the RPG Maker XP engine. The game adds 150 new fan-made species of Pokémon, along with a new region. Similar to the official games, Uranium contains both online trading and online battling.
I'm not even hardcore into Pokemon (not anymore anyway...), yet I've heard about this one. Nintendo has been notorious about shutting down any site that hosts download files for this game, so you're on your own to fish up a copy. Boy, people think Nintendo are on the nuts of the emulation folks as of late, but that doesn't have nothing on how bad they have been hounding the guys who made this game.
Power Rangers: Beats of Power
This entry looks and plays like a sequel to the SNES/Sega Genesis original Power Rangers video games set in the Mighty Morphin' era of the franchise with sound clips and audio cues from the show.
This was released back on July 24, 2014 by Merso-X, who is getting pretty popular in this article at this point. The update to that initial release, dubbed Beats of Power - Special Edition, released February 25, 2017 as a PC only update that added 4-player local co-op, additional enemies, along with various bug fixes.
Merso-X has a sequel in development, dubbed Beats of Power 2, focusing exclusively on the Power Rangers Zeo series.
Power Rangers Zeo: Beats of Power 2 (WIP)
YouTube Channel (Merso-X's work on this game and others in development)
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| I know someone's going to be mad as hell at the lack of Tanya in this... |
A sequel is being developed but rendered in the same visual style as the original Mortal Kombat games. I would love to know how they are animating this without the original cast, unless they are just using the stock footage from the first few seasons. So far this looks awesome.
This sequel is currently in development by Merso-X, who recently finished working on another noteworthy entry at the bottom of this list.
Super Smash Bros. - Project M
In a bizarre way, I feel that this game is entirely responsible for Smash Ultimate having as many characters that it did along with Nintendo going out of their way to please their player base.
For those worried about possibly damaging their Wii/Wii U's attempting to install and/or run this fan-made game can rest assured that there are plenty of ways to play this legally without tampering with your console.
Out of all of the fan-made games on this list, I believe that this is most recognizable (or rather most popular) one in terms availability and accessibility.
Sonic: After the Sequel
GameJolt (Info Page)
Sonic: After the Sequel is a 2013 platform video game created by Brazilian student Felipe Daneluz (LakeFeperd). It is an unofficial game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series and set between the official games Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Daneluz's second Sonic game, it follows Sonic: Before the Sequel, which set between the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Like its predecessor, After the Sequel stars Sonic the Hedgehog and his sidekick Tails in a quest to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds from Doctor Eggman.
After the Sequel was inspired by Sonic Heroes and other games both inside and outside the Sonic series, and it was developed with Sonic Worlds, an engine based in Multimedia Fusion 2 that reduces the amount of computer programming involved in game creation. It was released as a free download for Microsoft Windows personal computers on June 15, 2013. The game was very well received by video game journalists, who lauded its preservation of retro Sonic gameplay and its eclectic, 1990s-style soundtrack. The trilogy of Before the Sequel, After the Sequel, and their successor Sonic: Chrono Adventure performed unusually well for fangames, having been downloaded 120,000 times by March 2014.
Sonic: Project Hero (WIP)
I saw a bit of footage of this game in action and I thought it looked amazing to say that I'm not even too crazy about Sonic's 3D outings if I'm perfectly honest. It seems like that a lot of the mechanics from previous games were implemented here to please old and newer Sonic fans.
Super Thundercats: The Lost Eye of Thundera
Super Thundercats: The Lost Eye of Thundera is a remake of the 1987 game. It features updated graphics and music, smoother gameplay, stages featuring the Thundertank, and a much needed final confrontation against Mumm-Ra (the original game ends abruptly after completing the last stage).
Another fangame made by the infamous Merso-X. This guy is racking up one hell of an impressive resume with these games based off beloved children's properties. This game however, I wouldn't be putting up to the top of my list of achievements as the original 1987 game wasn't much to write home about anyway, let alone worth making a remake for.
TMNT Rescue-Palooza
(Laughs) April O'Neil is even here in all of her yellow jumpsuit glory.
The title released June 13, 2019 by none other than Merso-X with help from bWWd, who worked on the previously mentioned He-Man & She-Ra game.
PREVIEW -- Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid (PS4, XB1, Switch, PC)
After the beloved "Shattered Grid" storyline by BOOM! Comics that sparked a resurgence of popularity for the Power Rangers mythos, it was only a matter of time that Power Rangers were going to get a proper fighting game after that mobile game, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, panned out.
Last that I heard, that Ryu and Akuma were added to that game as guest fighters, but it seems that this game as a different bit of awe attached to it. Pro gamer and renown fighting game competitor, Justin Wong, is helping play test and offer feedback to the developers on this Marvel vs. Capcom style fighter. From the little that we've seen here, it reminds me a bit of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. From as much shit that game got at launch (deservingly so in terms of Capcom's poor marketing and visuals though), the core gameplay was fun as hell, so I don't see anything wrong with basing the tag mechanic for this fighter off that. Let's just see if everything else comes together properly.
I'm wondering about how many seasons are going to be represented, along with the amount of playable characters. Anyone who has been following Power Rangers (or rather Super Sentai in Japanese) knows they have a wealth of 25+ years of characters to draw from, so that's going to make selecting an unique, yet fun roster of characters to play as a tough decision. In my honest opinion, Lord Drakkon should be a no brainer in terms of a final boss AND playable character.
OPINION -- Adi Shankar Presents: POWER/RANGERS
Unless you have been hiding underneath a rock for the past 24 hours, then you have heard of this fan-made "bootleg" reboot of the beloved Power Rangers franchise. It has caused a lot of buzz on social media and I have heard a lot of mixed reactions to it. A lot of you know me personally as I still geek out to Power Rangers in my old age, so I want to weigh in on my thoughts on this film as well.
First of all, if you haven't seen the film I have the full video linked below if it hasn't been taken down by YouTube or Saban yet.
Secondly, why does this fan-made film exists? Simple, listen to the man behind this project himself below.
My Thoughts
If you have 14 minutes to spare and you consider yourself a fan of Power Rangers' original iteration, you should definitely take the time to check this short film out.I can totally understand why Saban is going out of their way to remove this footage from online, as it could potentially damage the perception of how they want to continue market Power Rangers in America as a family friendly product.
I'm currently watching Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger in Japanese out of my own curiosity of the differences between that series and its English adaptation, Power Rangers Super Megaforce, and the mature tone here is very similar. Gokaiger doesn't take the violence up to this level but there's a lot more mature themes as it's evident that minds behind Super Sentai don't want to shelter their children from the truths of the world. Villains openly attack innocent bystanders and people get killed - a LOT, in their iteration. Characters have a lot more depth and more believable instead of the campiness that we have come accustomed to in their American counterpart.
The fight sequences in this were stylishly choreographed. I guess everyone is taking lessons and ideas from the choreographers from Raid: The Redemption nowadays. I'm not saying that's a bad thing either. If I had any complain during the action scenes, it was that I wish the Rangers' outfits didn't look so cheaply made. It's apparent they have a decent budget for special effects - let alone hiring Katee Sackhoff and James Van Der Beek to do something like this, so it wouldn't have killed them to dump some cash into the pot for some decent looking outfits. How do you end up getting costumes looking worse than the original Power Rangers movie costumes is a mystery to me. The costumes here looked like cosplay gone horribly wrong.
I understand this is the director's own unique vision and take on the Power Rangers lore, but at least get the source material right please. Otherwise, you're ruining mine and many others' childhood in the process. Depending on how you feel about this film, he might have already done that already...
Continuity Issues
Clearly, this guy hasn't see an episode of Power Rangers outside of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and maybe an episode or two of Power Rangers Zeo (the English adaptation of Japan's Chouriki Sentai Ohranger) as there's a TON of continuity issues with this that don't add up at ALL.
- Tommy and Kimberly were married? Since when? After Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) left shortly into the third season of MMPR, she was replaced by Katherine Hillard (Catherine Sutherland) who filled in as Tommy's new love interest. Katee Sackhoff looks more like Katherine than Kimberly if they was trying to cast this properly. Even during the events of Power Rangers Dino Thunder, where Tommy Oliver returned as an adult to aid this generation of Rangers, he still wasn't married.
- The opening sequence was reminiscent of the Legendary War from Super Megaforce or the opening battle between the residents of Terra Venture and the evil forces of Scorpicus from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.
- Bulk and Skull are villains and meth addicts? After high school, they both joined the police force to do good (Power Rangers Zeo and Turbo for proof of that...) In one of the newer seasons (Power Rangers Samurai - English adaptation of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger), Skull is a wealthy businessman while Bulk is training Skull's son in the noble ways of the samurai.
If you don't believe Bulk and Skull to be good guys, watch this clip.
- Zack, Trini, and Jason all left for an opportunity to do humanitarian work on the UN as part of their write-off from the 3rd season. They were replaced by Rocky DeSantos (Steve Cardenas), Adam Park (Johnny Young Bosch), and Alisha Campbell (Karan Ashley) for the duration of MMPR's run. I literally busted a gut laughing that Zack was reduced to selling cheap Tae-Bo knock-offs called "Hip Hop Kido" in his adult years.
- Trini Kwan's death has NEVER been referenced within the continuity. While her character has never been referenced in the continuity after MMPR, her actress' (Thuy Trang) death has been acknowledged publicly by her former co-stars.
- During the end of Power Rangers Zeo, Billy Cranston left Earth to stay on the planet Aquitar after falling in love with one of the aliens there, Cestria. According to the continuity, he has not returned to Earth since other than to aid the Megaforce Rangers against the remnants of Emperor Malvo's forces in the finale of Power Rangers Super Megaforce.
- James Van Der Beek portrays Rocky DeSantos (played by Steve Cardenas, who ends up replacing Jason/Austin St. John in the third season of MMPR) but I see no way how he could have turned out this warped and demented over the years. If he aligned himself with the Machine Empire then why he was aiding the other Zeo Rangers against them?
- While it was cool to see Carla Perez don the old Rita Repulsa outfit again since she somehow still manages to look gorgeous in her old age, but anyone who has seen the finale to Power Rangers In Space can tell you that EVERY Ranger and villain either lost their powers or was destroyed after the defeat of Dark Specter and the death of Zordon.
- While remnants of the Machine Empire have continued to pop up in future seasons of Power Rangers (namely Power Rangers Wild Force's beloved "Forever Red" special, that brought back EVERY Red Ranger to that point in history for a special team-up) after the death of Zordon supposedly wiped out all evil from the universe from that time, it makes sense that Rita Repulsa was behind this charade all along since her and Lord Zedd had a hand in bringing a downfall to their Empire during the finale of Power Rangers Zeo.
The Verdict?
Not bad at all, but I don't think America is ready for a "mature" version of Power Rangers - yet. If you want that, watch the Super Sentai seasons before Saban butchers them to hell in editing and Americanizing them.
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