Ever since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first hit the airwaves in August 1993, these spandex-clad teenagers with attitude have powered up many video game consoles. From arcade beat ’em ups to fighting games that spawn communities of dedicated competitors, the Power Rangers have inspired a number of video games in their 30-plus years of saving the world.
Regrettably, not all Power Rangers games deserve reverence. Like a lot of kid-oriented licensed video games in the ’90s and 2000s, Power Rangers games primarily functioned to siphon parents’ money and distract kids. (Boy, did they!) And with an annual reboot, these games were clearly developed on rushed schedules. Compared to rivals X-Men and Ninja Turtles, the Power Rangers rank quite low in the hierarchy of superhero gaming franchises.
Still, Power Rangers games have their appeal. When your thumbs are itching to mindlessly pummel monsters and you’re feeling like it’s morphin’ time, reach for a Power Rangers game. In celebration of National Power Rangers Day and in anticipation of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind coming soon, let’s rank the best Power Rangers games of all time.
7. Power Rangers Super Legends (2007) on PlayStation 2
Disney acquired the rights from Saban to own Power Rangers in 2002. To mark the franchise’s 15th anniversary, Disney unleashed “Power Rangers Super Legends,” a multimedia initiative that released anniversary-themed toys, merchandise, and yes, video games.
A2M, known today as Behaviour Interactive (Dead by Daylight) joined Power Rangers’ quinceañera with Power Rangers Super Legends for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. Impressively, the games are not the same. While both games center around different generations of Power Rangers teaming up to stop a vengeful Lord Zedd, they each have a different narrative and a different roster of playable Power Rangers.
While the DS version gets the edge for simply having more Power Rangers to play as, the PS2 version tells a more robust story via fully-voiced “cutscenes.” (It’s just comic book-style panels, but still. Steve Blum does a great Lord Zedd, too.) What’s important here is the mere fact that Power Rangers Super Legends marked the first time a Power Rangers game was more than annual shovelware. Before fans had amazing comics that explored Power Rangers’ mighty morphin multiverse, they got to see a bigger, expansive future through Super Legends.
6. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (2000) on GameBoy Color
After the three games based on Power Rangers Zeo, the franchise powered down from gaming; instead, there was a string of now-forgotten Flash games on the Fox Kids website. In 2000, the Power Rangers came roaring back to consoles with Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue on PlayStation, GameBoy Color, and Nintendo 64.
Of the three, the GameBoy Color game deserves recognition. Living up to that year’s premise of emergency rescue, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue tasks players with accomplishing three missions in five districts of the city Mariner Bay. There’s “Rescue,” where players save civilians trapped in burning buildings. Then you have “Battle,” where players revisit the same levels to mow down hordes of monsters. The final mission is “Megazord,” which is the climactic Megazord vs. kaiju confrontation.
The open-ended mission structure gives players a freedom of choice. It’s a nice change of pace from the franchise’s tired history of linearity. The “Rescue” missions happen to be the most fun too, with players having to jump over fires, climb broken ladders, and break through walls to rescue people. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue really feels like you’re a superhero in that way. It’s an aspect that many superhero games, even big triple-A titles, often forget all about.
5. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1994) and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) on SEGA Game Gear
The overnight popularity of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993 spawned a number of games across Nintendo and Sega platforms. Arguably the best of them were the two games on Sega’s signature handheld, the Game Gear. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers basically adapts the first season of the show, while the “sequel” Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie combines season two with the plot of the 1995 movie. (That means Tommy is the White Ranger and the final boss is Ivan Ooze.)
A novel mixture of one-on-one fighting and arcade-style beat ’em ups, Mighty Morphin on Game Gear lets players control their favorite Rangers against waves of Putties before squaring off with Goldar and one of several monsters-of-the-week. The biggest challenge is the survival aspect to the game, with players needing to preserve as much of their health bar to make it to the bosses.
Mighty Morphin makes the most of the Game Gear’s limitations, namely its scant two buttons. Akin to Street Fighter, the game affords players directional inputs to perform a variety of offensive maneuvers, including unique weapon attacks and even wrestling throws. There’s a lot of surprising depth in these games, and it’s astonishing how well they hold up years later. Along with vivid 8-bit graphics and crunchy sound effects, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Game Gear is still mighty as it satisfies the specific gaming need I call “waiting at the DMV.”
4. Power Rangers: Legacy Wars (2017) on iOS, Android
As the PG-13 reboot movie Saban’s Power Rangers headed into theaters, Lionsgate and Saban got in on the action with a tie-in game on mobile devices. But the big twist no one saw coming was that Power Rangers: Legacy Wars was anything but a cheap cash-in.
A one-on-one fighter for iOS and Android devices, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars trades hysteric button mashing for strategic MMO-style actions where players perform certain moves at different intervals. More chess than boxing, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars is an even balance of strategy and pulse-pounding action.
The most appealing feature of Legacy Wars is its scope that encompasses all eras of Power Rangers, from the original TV series to the 2017 movie and beyond. The game’s unexpected long lifespan, lasting longer than the movie it was made to promote, allowed Power Rangers to enjoy its first prestigious gaming crossover with Street Fighter in 2018. Years after release, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars has been downloaded over 50 million times and features an expansive roster of nearly 150 characters. Not bad for a game promoting a movie promoting Krispy Kreme.
3. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition (1995) on Super Nintendo
Towards the end of the Super Nintendo’s lifecycle, the tenth Power Rangers game arrived in September 1995: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition, exclusively on SNES.
Changing things up from the many beat ’em ups—and stepping up from the lackluster Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Sega Genesis—The Fighting Edition (TFE) is a standout one-on-one console fighter with superb graphics and animation, a killer soundtrack, and addictive pick-up-and-play mechanics. It’s not as complex as The King of Fighters ’94, but there is undoubtedly a generation of EVO competitors who likely got their start here.
The downside of TFE is its anemic roster of eight playable characters: four Megazords, and four monsters including Goldar and Lord Zedd. Whether it was due to the SNES’ technical limitations (a poor excuse, since Super Street Fighter II had a whopping 16 fighters) or the short timetable the devs had, TFE suffers as a brilliant game cut off at its knees.
In a dream scenario, the definitive version of The Fighting Edition would have more characters. My fantasy additions: the original Dino Megazord, Dragonzord, Tigerzord (on its own), Ninjor, Ivan Ooze, and a few more monsters from all three seasons of the show. This would not only make The Fighting Edition the ultimate Mighty Morphin Power Rangers game, but the ultimate mecha-versus-monsters game of the 16-bit era.
2. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) on SEGA Genesis
When Power Rangers first hit the big screen in 1995, there of course came an array of licensed video games. On Super Nintendo, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was basically a movie-themed reskin of the ’94 game (a scenario also seen on GameBoy and Game Gear), but the SEGA Genesis title forged its own path.
Using a brand new engine, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie on Genesis—yet another arcade-style beat ’em up—features its own sprites, sound effects including audible “Hi-yahs,” and even MIDI covers of Ron Wasserman’s iconic battle songs heard on the TV show.
On top of that, the game is a sheer blast to play, fostering an experience that just feels like an episode of Power Rangers in 16-bit form. Dare we say it: This is as close a competitor the Power Rangers franchise has to rival Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Simply put, no game simultaneously exemplifies its era of gaming or the license it’s inspired by more than this. If only the Power Rangers themselves played differently…
1. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (2019) on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Stadia
When Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid arrived in early 2019, as essentially a console version of Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, low expectations were barely met. The game was in rough shape with no single-player story modes, no voice-over, and a tiny roster (12 characters feels small when your fighting game is 3-versus-3). The game was like playing with Power Rangers action figures in a library, and major gaming outlets reviewed it accordingly.
But something amazing happened. Over time, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid received TLC, with update after update fine-tuning its gameplay and new features added that turned it away from the low-rent experience it felt at first. This included a single-player campaign written by acclaimed comics writer Kyle Higgins, voice-acting with some Power Rangers stars reprising their roles (including the late Jason David Frank), and over a dozen new characters from all eras of the franchise – not to mention, a second Street Fighter crossover.
After years of updates, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is easily the best Power Rangers video game of all time. Shockingly, it is one of the most fun console fighters in modern gaming. It’s accessible on almost every major platform. And thanks to crossplay and rollback netcode, it’s easy to play with friends regardless of consoles. (That it was on Stadia truly made Power Rangers one of the most cross-play compatible titles ever.) While fans have expressed disappointment that developer nWay has gone silent about the game’s future, if it indeed has one, it’s a testament to the game’s appeal that it now boasts a thriving community. Whatever the future holds for Battle for the Grid, you can bet its hardcore fans will keep the power alive.
Honorable Mention: Chroma Squad (2015), multiplatform
Outside the United States, there are legions of die-hard fans of Super Sentai, the original Japanese television franchise that Power Rangers sourced itself from.
In 2015, Brazilian studio Behold Studios paid homage to their childhood nostalgia with the Kickstarter-funded Chroma Squad, a unique tactical RPG with a glorious retro art style and an unabashed love for the tokusatsu genre. In Chroma Squad, players take charge of a start-up television studio that produces a new Super Sentai-style series. With each successful “episode” that makes it to air, players earn money to upgrade the quality of their production. (There’s more to the game than that, but we’re keeping it spoiler-free here.)
With a fresh take on the turn-based RPG genre, tongue-in-cheek humor, and genuine love for the cheesiness of Super Sentai and Power Rangers, Chroma Squad deserves a place in your gaming library. The game has nothing to do with Power Rangers in any official way, but a legal dispute resulted in the game’s title screen bearing the wording: “Inspired by Saban’s Power Rangers.”