Ah, it's been a while since I've featured a Power Rangers game on Retro Reboot. Like TMNT, the Rangers find themselves in a divot when it comes to video games, they generally are almost all beat'em ups. Power Rangers Samurai, the most recent game I've reviewed as of this writing, is really no different. This does happen to be one of the more fun Power Rangers titles I've played, yet still has some things about it that drive me nuts. 

And yes, I do consider the Wii retro. It's an obsolete piece of tech and represented a fixed point in gaming history and philosophy. I used to think differently about this topic, but I have evolved my thinking.

Power Rangers Samurai was the first Power Rangers series to air after Haim Saban reacquired the rights under Saban Brands and aired on Nickelodeon in 2011. This follows Power Rangers R.P.M., the last Disney-produced Power Rangers. At the time, fans speculated this was very close to possibly being the end of the franchise before being bought again. 

Development was handled by Namco Bandai and released for both the Wii and the DS.  

Since most of the Power Rangers games follow the arcade beat’em up style of gameplay, I can’t say that I was expecting revolutionary changes to its bread and butter, but given the Wii’s capabilities with the remote, PR Samurai did not particularly utilize it, yet still offers a solid game for those in need of pounding waves of Moogers. Very straightforward hack-n-slash action, with a handful of puzzles and obstacles to break up the monotony.

Samurai boasts very good vibrant colors and fluid animation. The Rangers all look pretty good and when the action picks up, there’s little to no slowdown. Signature attacks have each Ranger use one of their two signature weapons to launch powerful strikes that are fun to use. I feel the scenery could’ve been juggled up a bit as far as stage design goes, however.

Areas mainly consist of running through wreckage in a factory, outside near the park, and a bamboo forest. Yeah, they pretty much fight in the same locations in the show, but every stage layout feels identical to the last, regardless of the progressing level. Without a map in the player HUD, it can be a bit annoying when going down alternate paths to find hidden extras, so it requires a play through or two take the path that doesn’t initiate a boss battle to get the item you seek.

The game’s soundtrack is pretty good, but the quasi-generic rock riffs might get a bit repetitive. Voice acting is sharp, with the actors from the series reprising all of their roles, including the Nighloks (I still think Jayden sounds like he has victims tied up somewhere). During Megazord fights, the show’s theme blasts in the background while the to titans duke it out. That’s always a win!!

It took a bit of fidgeting, but I got used to the button layout. I’m still programmed with the mindset that a jump button is on the right side of a controller, but once I adjusted, I found this game to handle very nicely. Attacks are quick, recovery time is spot on, and you move around very fast. As previously stated, I expected a little more in terms of use with the Wii motions. Shaking or waving the remote or the nunchuk does nothing, which in normal circumstances would be disappointing, but I gotta say that it makes up for it in spades with the ability to use the remote as a Samuraizer to practice symbol power! I bought this game off that selling point alone and went to the practice mode so I could get really good at it! You feel like a Samurai Ranger yourself, yeah it’s a bit tricky to nail it as fast as they do in the show but you can get pretty close. A little bit of the fanboy in me enjoyed this.

This is yet ANOTHER Power Rangers game where the Zord battles hits the shitter. How hard would it have been to turn a kaiju battle into a one-on-one tournament fighter!? Just like Power Rangers Super Legends, Samurai decided to go the route of a silly minigame where you have to time the swings of your attack and your defense with a critical point on a timer bar. It's the only time where the motion controls plays an integral part of the game, and it's as fun as rummaging your hand through a dark garbage bag filled with used needles.

Power Rangers Samurai is a more than suitable game to quench your Ranger action thirst, but it isn’t as innovative to a degree that a next-gen game should be at this point. While it leaves a lot to be desired in what it would’ve been (wider range of attacks, a more engaging Megazord battle scheme, a couple of extra mini-game possibilities), it’s still a pretty formidable action game for the Wii.