November 1st, 2004
Power Rangers: Dino Thunder
When I put Power Rangers into the Gamecube to play, many thoughts raced through my mind. The old memories of when I was a kid watching Power Rangers on Saturday mornings on Fox. Vivid memories of the evil villains such as Rita and Lord Zedd popped into my mind with their henchman Goldar doing all the dirty work. Other distinct memories would include the controversy over the evil Green Power Ranger, and him turning into the noble White Power Ranger often came to mind. I guess you could say that I was hoping Dino Thunder may revive some nostalgic thoughts and have me love Power Rangers like I used to back when I was a child.
Those glory days of the Power Rangers were over years ago. They still have the show running on Fox in the mornings but it’s not even close to what we’d expect from the old Power Rangers that we knew. They now go into space, turn into ninjas, have various other coloured Power Rangers and so many other uncanny ideas that it’s no longer interesting but seems to borrow what Japanese Sentai television shows have done on their television. Enough about the television show and how the Power Rangers may have gone down the drain, let me talk about the video game.
Gameplay
Dino Thunder features over 50 missions and that may sound impressive to many casual gamers. The fact is, though, when you actually open this game up and start the missions, they take about five minutes to complete and it’s onto the next mission. Nothing spectacular at all as they are short lived. The game starts you off with the Red Ranger’s mech and then you’ll work your way through to gaining the Yellow, Blue and finally the Black Ranger’s mech. The mechs don’t vary too much and only the Yellow one really has a special ability as it can fly.
Some disappointing factors include that all the buildings throughout the entire game are not able to be destroyed. This to me was something important that is found with many mech games as you work around levelling out cities behind you. The lack of difficulty in this game will turn off those who want to relive their Power Ranger past. The lack of difficulty is aimed at the younger crowd as it will inspire them to run through the game and complete it fully without getting bored. The game just doesn’t deliver on the gameplay end as it doesn’t offer anything intriguing to keep the mature crowd playing this game.
Graphics
Now that we have established this game will be over before you know it, we can try to determine if you’ll enjoy it at all. The graphics throughout this game seem like they belong in a last generation PlayStation game. They could have added more to the environments to at least give it something that stood out. Character models are sub-par but still they don’t deter from the game’s mechanics too much. If one thing sticks out at all for Power Rangers, it would be the audio. It may be a little cheesy but at least it represents the series and how it actually sounds.
