Power Rangers Dino Thunder Review

Power Rangers Dino Thunder

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Publisher: THQ

Publisher 2: Buena Vista Games

Developer: PCP&L

# of Players: 1

Category: Action

Release Dates

N Amer - 09/14/2004

Intl - 11/01/2004

Official Game Website

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Power Rangers Dino Thunder Review

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One of the benefits of getting to review the same game but on different systems is that you can see how much the developers put into their labor. Because if you (pretend you're a developer) really respect the game you are working on or that you think "hey, people are really going to enjoy this one" then the end product is just that much more enjoyable as we gamers respond in kind by praising the game itself. Which makes me think that the folks developing this game must have been having some sort of labor dispute or that the interns were in charge of the port of this title.

In other words, this is not a good game, at all.

The Power Rangers are a fairly long lived license as far as toys go, if you think about it, they have been making toys for over 10 years and appear to have no end in sight. Their latest line of giant robots involves three robotic dinosaurs aptly named the Dinozords. As in all the Power Ranger series, the Dinozords are piloted by teens who just happen to be martial arts masters and the robots resemble some sort of animal or vehicle or household appliance (mega-toasterzord go!). And in keeping with the series, these individual dinosaurs must combine to form an even larger robot (Megazord) who in turn battles the biggest and baddest that the bad guys have to offer. And in this particular game, the bad guy is called Mesogog, an evil scientist hell-bent on world suppression.

OK, enough of my vast knowledge on things Power Ranger, the fact is that this game just does not get the job done. If I piloted a very large robot (or made a game about large robots) I would expect that the robots would have multiple weapons, kick butt attacks and all sorts of damage inflicting splendor. Alas, this is just not the case. Each one of the Dinozords comes equipped with A SINGLE WEAPON. That's right, one weapon for the Pterodactyl, one for the triceratops and one for the tyrannosaurus rex. Wow, one weapon to help save the world. It should be noted that the dinozords also have a melee type attack too, the Tricerazord has a ramming attack that's fairly effective and was actually enjoyable to do the first couple of times, as were the other dinozords melee attacks, but the repetition is almost blinding in its execution. The fundamentals of piloting a giant robot just don't exist in this game.

The clever eye candy that the back of the game contains is somewhat of a trick, for a GameCube game. The look and feel of the game seems paper thin, objects have no real depth to them and apparently piloting a 50,000 ton robot won't destroy most of them. The robots look OK when they are sitting still but I couldn't quite put my finger on why when I moved them around I felt the need to get sick.

The soundtrack seems to loop through about five songs that felt Rangeresque. I tired of it quickly and muted my television for fear of it containing some sort of speaker damaging virus. I can't honestly say that the game would have been better if it contained a 5.1 surround sound, because then it just would have been bad music coming through five speakers. Really flat and sad sound effects didn't do much to help things along.

Review Scoring Details

Gameplay: 4.8

It's just plain sad that a major studio could put this out. This game has such a simple interface it's pathetic, no challenge, period.

Graphics: 5.7

It's the GameCube right? It has a fast processor right? Good graphic making abilities. So why in the devil does this game look so bad? Really, there is a reason this game is only $20.00, flat bland graphics, no sense of depth in the surroundings and poor level design are just the scratching of the surface, the original Sega genesis made stuff that looked like this.

Sound: 4.0

Go to a mirror and slap yourself, you hear that? That's the sound of kinetic energy making a sharp crack. No where in this game could you find kinetic or energy in the sound effects. Sorry to say that the Power Ranger music did nothing to evoke my desire to save the world from a tyrannical bad guy, sorry Washington.

Difficulty: Easy

Easy and sad, I love giant robot games, but this one is just too simple, even for small children, the GBA version is better.

Concept: 5.6

Time travel, giant robots, dinosaurs. We've been there done that before.

Overall: 4.9

It just isn't worth your gaming dollar, you will see this one in the bargain bin really soon. Even kids who love things Power Ranger will bore quickly. I can honestly say that this is one of the worst games I have ever played, and I have played some stinkers.