Fighting Games Friday: Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Actually Looks Good

I had no faith in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid when it was first revealed, thanks to the iffyshowing showing in its first teaser. It looked to be another ill-fated attempt at a licensed game, with merely okay aesthetics and janky gameplay. The latter was due to the extreme hit-stun present in the fighting, meaning individual hits caused too much of a pause in the action. I still wanted to keep a cautious eye on it thanks to my interest in the franchise, but it was tough to determine just how serious developer nWay was when they said they’d take feedback from the gaming audience and fighting game tournament players.

The game being announced in January for a release in April was also a bad sign, as low-budget licensed games (the few released on consoles these days) tend to have a short gap between the announcement and release. Note that this isn’t always the case.

Fortunately, they were more serious about taking feedback than expected, which they’ve demonstrated in every trailer and gameplay demo since the reveal. The extended announcement teaser and short accompanying gameplay video showed more potential, with gameplay that took inspiration from other 2D fighting games that used 3D models — especially the last two Street Fighter games. But it still looked like it needed some work, which left me thinking it would be merely serviceable, like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fighting game released on Sega Genesis.

The last trailer already showed serious strides in the polishing department, but the most recent one makes it look like a fun 3-on-3 tag battle fighting game. This is exactly why you’re seeing a post from me about it now, because it would have been mean to make one with the intention of lambasting it.

Since the development team at nWay had only three months to promote the game before its release, barring any delays, they’re revealing the cast quickly. Battle for the Grid will include characters from several Power Rangers installments, thanks to their main target audience being dedicated fans of the franchise, though they won’t mind roping in younger fans along the way. Most characters revealed so far are from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, including the Red Ranger (Jason) and the Green Ranger (Tommy). While the Black and Pink Rangers will be included, they’ll be in the form of brainwashed versions from the main villain.

That villain is Lord Drakkon, who originates from the MMPR comic series. He’s a version of Tommy that never strayed from evil, even after Rita Repulsa’s brainwashing was broken. This sounds like a fanfiction creation, but it’s the kind that appeals to the nostalgia of older fans, and they’re fine with it. He bears some resemblance to the White Ranger from MMPR at first glance, though has some design modifications to distinguish him. Goldar will also be included as a villain.

Other characters included from MMPR’s progeny will all be fan favorites. They include the Magma Defender from Lost Galaxy, Gia Moran/the Yellow Ranger from Super Mega Force, and Kat Manx from SPD. The entire initial cast isn’t known to the public just yet, but the discrepancy between these characters and those from MMPR couldn’t be more apparent.

The final game won’t have as large a cast as several fans want, given the massive amount of them in a franchise that’s existed for more than 25 years. But the development team behind this game is small and has a low budget to work with, meaning they can’t afford to include every fan favorite in the series. Their ability to respond to feedback quickly is alone impressive, given their capabilities.

The lack of resources also means the game may not include the voices of all the actors from the series. The gameplay videos are mostly voiceless, and nWay Senior Product Manager Jesse Cherry remained tight-lipped about exactly how many actors they were able to get back in an interview with DualShockers. It’s worth noting that Jason David Frank, who played Tommy in several Power Rangers episodes, was included in the announcement teaser linked to in the first paragraph.

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid will release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC sometime in April. Hopefully the game receives enough attention between now and its release date, since they had the misfortune of announcing it on the same day Mortal Kombat 11 was revealed, along with the reveal trailer making it look iffy. It will also have cross-play between XB1, Switch, and PC, but not PS4, showing that Sony is still playing the same dumb game with not allowing PlayStation Network to cooperate with others. More characters should be revealed between now and the release, though three characters are being saved for the first round of post-release downloadable content.

Now, maybe we can get that official Power Rangers vs. Street Fighter fighting game crossover that some fans want after this, for good reason.