Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a incredible instance of the way some distance rock-stable mechanics and sturdy characters can take a preventing recreation, even if the entirety else is operating against it. This nostalgia-fest has the appearance of a loose-to-play cellular sport, a whole lack of voice performing, a barebones set of modes and features, simplest 9 characters, handiest five tiers, repetitive and everyday song, all on the pinnacle of the stigma of being based off certified assets now not known for having an excellent online game music document. But against all odds, under all of that beats the heart of a combating gadget advanced with thought, care, and apparent love for 2D tag fighting video games.
Battle for the Grid is a 3-on-3 tag fighter with a four-button fight system consisting of light, medium, heavy, and special attacks, much like Dragon Ball FighterZ. Also, like FighterZ, there are no complicated button inputs for special movements, with each pass being performable by pressing a direction and a button. The result is a fighting system that everyone, however, gets rid of the execution barrier of access and focuses as an alternative on basics; that’s exquisite due to the fact the simplicity of the combat system is complemented by way of much greater complex tag mechanics and a wild array of unique movements to have skilled gamers mixing warring parties up like batter.
Beyond that, a great deal of the intensity comes from push blocks, armored EX movements, fantastic moves, and a massive, gratifying comeback mechanic within the shape of a one-time use ultra assault that calls both a Megazord, Dragonzord, or Mega Goldar to use potent attacks that cover almost the entire screen for a brief time. The comeback mechanic is especially first-rate because it’s specific, totally consistent with the Power Rangers emblem, and succeeds as a way to show the tide of losing in shape for your choice without feeling like a cheap win button.
Battle for the Grid borrows its exceptional tag mechanics in general from BlazBlue Cross Tag warfare, and it works simply as nicely here. You can call in and help to have them make an attack; however, you definately also have the choice to manage the assist and tag your other individual out, allowing you to convert combinations off throws and maintain mixtures with assists in amusing and interesting ways. While there are only nine characters in Battle for the Grid, a paltry wide variety via any measure, they’re at the least all extremely properly defined and a laugh to play. Most regular preventing recreation archetypes are protected: Kat is a hyper rushdown-targeted character, Tommy and Jason are superb all-rounders that could do a little bit of the whole lot, Mastodon Sentry and Ranger Killer are extraordinarily powerful zoners, Goldar and Magna Defender are the large, slow bruisers that dish out massive harm with only some successful hits, Gia is a mid-range-targeted powerhouse, and Drakkon fills the role of the elaborate character along with his exceedingly technical mixups and flow set.
The principal difficulty with Battle for the Grid is that the entire surrounding of its essentially stable and fun combating system is entirely lacking. As a result, it’s now not a very attractive sport to take a look at, discovering as a touch better-looking model of the Power Rangers: Legacy Wars cell game and nowhere near up to the usual of the latest surge of fighting video games; there’s surely no voice appearing outside of the announcer at the begin of a in shape and more than one vast growls from Goldar; the tune is the prevalent gentle rock that speedy will become repetitive due to the fact there are simplest five topics across the 5 degrees; Arcade Mode is a bust, with absolutely no story and poor AI; Training Mode lacks the fundamental function of being able to report and playback actions; there are plenty of graphical and sound insects, and there’s no option to rematch in on-line play. To be fair, Battle for the Grid is a budget-priced sport with $20 for the usual version at release, and the content supplied clearly suits up with its decreased fee. However, there is also a $40 Collector’s Edition with the Season One pass, offering 3 extra fighters down the road and some skins, which appears of tons more questionable price.
Battle for the Grid will, in the end, live or die based totally on the network that develops around it. Online play has been usually strong on wired ethernet, but playing wirelessly on Switch had common drops in connection and, in any other case, laggy play, so I’d recommend averting wifi if possible. There also appear to be some full-size bugs that might be different from line play relating to blocking. I am skilled with consistently getting hit via lows in numerous matches, whether doing anything but retaining crouch block and getting hit by ordinary leap-ins regardless of doing nothing but protecting status block. Hopefully, nWay can restore it because it definitely hurts the online experience.
The Verdict
There are some pretty appropriate fighting sport mechanics in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, but there’s little or no meat on that skeleton. A properly-rounded roster of fun, nostalgic characters are represented poorly by dated snapshots, slapdash presentation, and – most damningly – a lack of meaningful single-player content material, other modes, characters, and degrees. Nevertheless, it’s a strong beginning for developer nWay’s first foray into the fighting game style. However, there’s a protracted way to visit make Power Rangers a contender in a space that ends up crowded with notable video games.
