You know what’s funny about coming to retro gaming as an adult? I don’t have those rose-colored glasses that make every childhood game seem like a masterpiece. Case in point – I picked up Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for Genesis about five years ago, thinking it might be one of those hidden gems I’d missed during my non-gaming youth. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.
Found it at a game shop in Boulder, wedged between some sports titles nobody cares about anymore. The cartridge looked decent enough, and the price was reasonable – always a good sign in the retro market, though sometimes it just means the game isn’t worth much. Should’ve taken that hint, honestly.
The thing is, I never watched Power Rangers as a kid. Was too old when it hit big in the 90s, busy learning construction and trying to figure out adult life. So when I fired this up on my Genesis, I was coming at it completely fresh – no Saturday morning memories to soften the blow of what turned out to be a pretty mediocre beat-’em-up.
First impression wasn’t terrible, I’ll give it that. The opening theme music actually sounded pretty good through the Genesis sound chip – that YM2612 could work magic when developers knew what they were doing with it. Problem was, the magic pretty much stopped there.
The morphing sequences looked… well, imagine if someone described a Power Rangers transformation to an artist over a bad phone connection, then that artist had to recreate it using 1994 hardware and about fifteen minutes. The Rangers kind of flash and shimmer, there’s some color cycling, and then suddenly they’re in costume. It’s not awful, exactly, but it’s not going to give you chills either.
Combat feels sluggish compared to other Genesis brawlers I’ve played. Coming from Streets of Rage 2 – which is basically perfect – to this was jarring. Each Ranger supposedly has their own fighting style, but they all feel like they’re moving underwater. The Red Ranger hits hard but moves like molasses, the Yellow Ranger is supposed to be quick but her attacks barely register. Found myself just mashing buttons and hoping for the best, which isn’t usually how good fighting games work.
What really got to me was the wasted potential. The show – from what I understand from pop culture osmosis and my daughter explaining it to me – had all these cool monster battles and giant robot fights. The game tries to capture that with Megazord sequences, but they end up feeling more like a chore than the epic battles they’re supposed to represent. You lumber around these big sprites, throwing the same attacks over and over while generic rock music plays in the background.
I actually called my daughter while I was playing this, asked her about Power Rangers since she’d mentioned being into it as a kid. She laughed when I told her I was playing the Genesis game. “Oh dad, that one’s terrible,” she said. “Even we knew it was bad back then, but we played it anyway because it was Power Rangers.” That’s the power of nostalgia right there – something I completely lack for this particular piece of gaming history.
The boss fights are where things get really rough. Fought this gold-armored villain – Goldar, according to the manual – in what looked like a rejected background from Mortal Kombat. Same attack patterns, same limited moveset, same feeling that the developers had run out of time and just shipped whatever they had working. It’s functional, barely, but there’s no satisfaction to it.
Level design doesn’t help matters either. Most stages are just flat planes where enemies spawn in predictable patterns. Walk right, fight some putties (gray suited foot soldiers, apparently), walk right some more, fight a mini-boss, repeat. I’ve played plenty of beat-’em-ups that follow this formula and make it work through tight controls and clever enemy placement. Power Rangers just feels like everyone’s going through the motions.
Sound effects are hit or miss – mostly miss. The voice samples are compressed to the point where they sound like they’re coming through a drive-thru speaker, and the impact sounds when you hit enemies are disappointingly weak. For a show that was all about flashy action and dramatic sound effects, the game feels surprisingly muted.
Here’s the thing though – I can see what they were trying to do. This was clearly a licensed tie-in rushed out to capitalize on the show’s popularity, but there are moments where you can glimpse what it might have been with more time and budget. The character sprites are actually pretty detailed for 16-bit, and when the music hits right, you get a sense of that heroic Saturday morning energy the show was famous for.
Playing it now, without childhood attachment, it’s just a mediocre beat-’em-up with a popular license slapped on it. But I’ve learned enough about retro gaming culture to understand that for kids who loved the show, this was probably magical despite its flaws. Sometimes the license matters more than the gameplay, especially when you’re eight years old and get to be your favorite superhero.
Tried playing through it with a buddy who actually watched Power Rangers as a kid. His reaction was fascinating – he kept making excuses for the game, explaining how certain parts were “actually pretty cool for the time” or how the music “really captured the show’s spirit.” Classic nostalgia in action. Me? I just saw clunky controls and repetitive gameplay.
That’s been one of the most interesting parts of this retro gaming journey – seeing how differently people react to the same games based on when and why they first played them. My friend sees childhood magic preserved in 16-bit form. I see a below-average licensed game that probably disappointed even in 1994.
Would I recommend hunting this down? Not really, unless you’re either a completionist collecting every Genesis beat-’em-up or someone with serious Power Rangers nostalgia. There are much better ways to spend your retro gaming dollars. Streets of Rage, Final Fight CD, even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games blow this out of the water.
But it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Sometimes playing the mediocre games helps you appreciate the great ones more. And it gave me insight into how powerful nostalgia can be in shaping gaming memories – something I’ll never have for games from this era, for better or worse.
Anyway, back to the collection. Think I’ll fire up Streets of Rage 2 and remember what a good Genesis brawler actually feels like.
Timothy discovered retro gaming at forty and never looked back. A construction foreman by day and collector by night, he writes from a fresh, nostalgia-free angle—exploring classic games with adult curiosity, honest takes, and zero childhood bias.
