Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
Review by: Paul Acevedo
When Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid launched in 2019, it was largely praised for its solid fighting game mechanics but panned for its smallish roster of 12 characters. But that was then, and this is now. Developer nWay has continuously added new content via updates and season passes. The Super Edition of the game includes all of the content from Season Passes 1-3, while Season Pass 4 is sold separately. With all those additions, Battle for the Grid has grown into a truly robust fighting game!
Battle for the Grid’s single-player offerings include Story, Arcade, and Training modes. Players will want to complete the 18 short tutorials to learn the mechanics before hopping into the other modes – Story doesn’t teach you how to play. Story mode is a loose retelling of the comic book’s “Battle for the Grid” storyline. The writing (by actual comic writer Kyle Higgins) is suitably dramatic, pitting rangers from across dimensions against Lord Drakkon, an evil version of Tommy Oliver, and his corrupted underlings. Many characters are voiced by their original actors, which is pretty awesome, even if some of the voices sound like they were recorded on phones instead of studio microphones.
The gameplay is simple to learn without sacrificing depth. Before each fight, players select a tag team of three characters. Three of the face buttons are dedicated to low-high attacks, and one does special moves. Combining directions with the face buttons performs different moves. The bumper buttons perform assist moves and swap out fighters. Super moves are performed by a simple combination of the High and Special buttons, provided the player has enough Super meter for it. The Ultra meter allows combatants to summon the assistance of a gigantic Zord or Goldar for either counterattacks or assists. Yes, it’s undeniably cool to witness a giant robot’s foot slamming down on opponents.
Online multiplayer has become a key feature for Battle for the Grid over the years. The online community isn’t exactly massive, but optional cross-play between all platforms certainly helps. Be warned that the Achievements/Trophies involve playing 1,000 ranked matches and winning 500 of them, which is excessively grindy and unrealistic for most players. At least the Achievements for beating Arcade with different characters are doable!
While the game’s roster might have been diminutive to start with, it now consists of 26 characters from approximately 13 series/films/universes, including Ryu and Chun Li from Street Fighter. Season 4, which just wrapped up, added Adam Park (MMPR Black Ninja Ranger – ’95 Movie Version), Poisandra (Dino Charge Villain), and Rita Repulsa (the original MMPR Villain). I’d have preferred one of the armored ’95 movie rangers to a ninja version, but the game didn’t have any ninja rangers before, so the choice makes sense. Poisandra is a delightfully silly villain even if she has no actual Dino Charge rangers to fight just yet. Rita is an excellent, long overdue addition to the lineup. She even summons Putties with some of her attacks!
I’m happy to declare that Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a genuinely good fighting game and an absolute treat for fans of the Power Rangers franchise. The stages could use some variety – where’s the rocky beach that we see in all the shows? Still, Power Rangers fans should absolutely grab this one and the Super Edition upgrade and/or season passes. Somebody’s got to stop Drakkon from conquering the multiverse!
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Super Edition costs $49.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam. The base game runs for $19.99 and is also available on Xbox Game Pass.
Our Rating: 4.5 out of 5