Being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan growing up I have to admit that I was never much of a fan of the Power Rangers. I actually don’t know if I have ever seen an episode of the television series. With no real attachment to the source material, I didn’t have high expectations for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game. As most board games based on licenses aren’t very good I was left debating how bad the game was going to be. After reading the rules though I gained a little hope since unlike most licensed games Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is not a roll and move game. Mighty Morphine Power Rangers actually surprised me a little but is still not a good board game.
How to Play Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game
Setup
- Choose your power ranger. Take the corresponding Power Ranger pawn, Power Morpher token, Dinozord pawn, Megazord piece(s) and power chips. Players place their Power Morpher token on the first space of their chosen lane. The power chips should be placed number side up in front of each player.
- Assemble the 3D gameboard and insert the Megazord pieces onto the board that weren’t chosen by one of the players. Place the scoring clip above the 28 space on the gameboard backdrop.
- Mix up the 12 Putty Patrollers. Randomly place each Putty Patroller on a small base which should have a white and black sticker on the bottom. Randomly place the Putty Patrollers on the three spaces after the lightning bolts in lanes that are occupied by one of the players.
- Randomly place one of the large stands (with a red and white sticker) on each of the Evil Space Aliens. Each player chooses one of the aliens to face and can look at the number on the stand before placing it at the end of their lane.
- Each player rolls one die with the highest roll getting to go first.
Playing the Game
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game is comprised of four stages.
Stage One
In the first stage the player needs to Power Morph into their Power Ranger. In order to Power Morph a player has to roll at least a five on the roll of one die. To raise the number they roll, a player can use one or more of their power chips. To use a power chip a player flips over the chip(s) they decided to use and adds the corresponding number to the number they rolled. All power chips must be used before the player rolls the die. If the player’s total is five or more, they replace their Power Morpher token with their Power Ranger token and they move onto the second stage of the game. If they roll less than five, they must retry on their next turn. With either outcome play passes to the next player.
Stage Two
In stage two players face off against the three Putty Patrollers blocking their path. Before a player faces off against the Putty Patroller in front of them, the player to their left gets to look at the sticker on the bottom of two Putty Patrollers. The player looks at the Putty Patroller in front of the current player as well as one other Putty Patroller on the board. The player to the left then chooses whether they want to switch the positions of the two pieces or keep them where they were.
After the player to the left is done looking at the two Putty Patrollers and possibly switching them, the current player will face off against the one directly in front of them. Before rolling the die the player chooses whether they want to use one of the face up power chips to add to their roll. Then the player rolls one die. The player looks at the sticker beneath the Putty Patroller and compares the number to what they rolled combined with any power chips they chose to use. If the player’s total is the same or larger than the Putty Partoller, the player defeats it and removes it from the gameboard. The player moves their pawn forward one space. If the player’s total is less than the Putty Patroller, the player fails to beat the Putty Patroller and they must try again on their next turn. Either way the player’s turn ends.
Once a player has beaten all three Putty Patrollers in front of them they remove their Power Ranger pawn from the board and replace it with their Dinozord Pawn. They move their piece to the space in front of their own Evil Space Alien and move to stage three on their next turn.
Stage Three
In stage three the players will face off against the space alien in front of them. Before they fight the alien the player to their left looks at the space alien in front of the current player along with another alien. The player can choose to keep the aliens on their current spots or swap their positions.
Before battling the space alien the current player can choose to use one or more of their power chips to add to their roll. The player will then roll two dice and add the amount from the power chips that they used. They will compare their total to the number on the base of the alien they are facing. If their total is higher than the alien’s they defeat the alien and remove it from the board. They move their Dinozord piece to the last space in their lane and they move onto stage four. If their total is less than the alien’s, the player must re-fight an alien on their next turn. With either outcome the current player’s turn ends.
Stage Four
In stage four the players will face off against King Sphinx. If all of the players have not yet reached stage four, the player will use three dice for the battle. Once all of the players have reached stage four the players remove their Dinozord pieces from the gameboard and add their Megazord pieces to the board. The players will then be able to roll four dice on their turn.
In order to defeat King Sphinx a player has to have a total, between their dice roll and power chips used, equal to or higher than the current level of King Sphinx (shown on the board). Before rolling the dice the current player has to choose whether they will use one of more power chips. They then roll the dice and calculate their total.
If the player’s total is less than King Sphinx’s level, the player loses the fight and has to try again on another turn. King Sphinx is weakened though so his level is lowered by one. King Sphinx’s level cannot be lowered below 20 though.
If a player’s total is higher than King Sphinx, the player has defeated him and the game ends.
Reclaiming Power Chips
Instead of fighting on a turn a player can choose to try and recover lost power chips. The player announces that they are trying to reclaim power chips. They then roll one die. If they roll a number equal to one of the chips they had used, they get to turn the chip face up again. If a player rolls a six they can choose one chip to turn face up. If a player rolls a number of a chip that is already face up, nothing happens on their turn.
Winning the Game
The first player to defeat King Sphinx wins the game.
My Thoughts on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game
Despite not being a good game, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game actually surprised me for a license game. Most board games based on licenses in the 1990s and earlier were very basic roll and move games. Roll the dice and move your piece around the gameboard. Before playing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I thought it was just going to be another bland roll and move game. I was actually kind of surprised when the game ended up being a light dice combat game.
Instead of rolling dice to move around the gameboard the objective of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game is to roll dice to defeat enemies. While this mechanic is very light it was a welcome surprise. When I said light though I really meant it. Basically all you do in the game is roll the die/dice and try to beat the total power of the creature you are fighting. There are no special abilities as battles just come down to rolling a higher number than the enemy you are fighting. While the combat is slightly better than the Batman Returns 3D Board Game, there still isn’t much to the dice rolling aspect of the game.
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game actually adds an interesting mechanic to supplement the dice rolling though. The idea of the power chips is the best part of the entire game. Basically the power chips add a risk/reward mechanic to the game. Players can choose to use a power chip in order to increase their roll but by using the chip they lose use of it unless they waste a turn trying to recover it. By not using a power chip though you are increasing your odds of not defeating an enemy and thus falling behind the other players. While these chips are nothing special I have to say that it is kind of surprising that they were included in a 1990s children’s license game.
While the power chips don’t save the game, I like them because they actually add some decisions to the game. Without the chips the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game would have just been a simple dice rolling game. You would roll the dice and hope you rolled a high enough number to defeat the enemy. The addition of the power chips actually adds some decision making to the game. The game still doesn’t have a lot of decision making but you actually feel like you have a little impact on the game. Using your chips wisely can prevent you from losing a fight or wasting a chip that you didn’t have to use.
I also like that the game gives players the ability to regain power chips. In exchange for giving up one of your turns you have the possibility of regaining one of the chips that you have used during the game. This mechanic is pretty necessary as players would have a pretty hard time making a lot of progress in the game without using at least one power chip on most turns. By giving players an opportunity to regain chips you can be less worried about using up chips because you can regain them pretty easily if you are willing to give up one of your turns. This even adds a somewhat interesting decision to the game as you have to decide when you want to try and regain your chips. If you use up your high chips early you might want to try and get those high chips back earlier. If you wait until you have used all or most of your chips though you increase your odds of being able to get one of your chips back when you roll a die to recover them.
While I like the idea of the power chips, they do kind of slow down the game. In the game I played two players made it through all but the final enemy without losing a fight. At that point though they were out of power chips so they had to waste several turns in order to get enough power chips to even stand a chance of beating the final enemy. The problem with the power chips is that to defeat the final enemy you need to have most of your power chips available to you in order to defeat him. This means that you have to waste time regaining chips before you attempt the final fight. If you end up losing that fight you have to waste several more turns trying to get your chips back. This makes the end of the game really start to drag on which allows players to catch up pretty quickly.
Speaking of the end game, while it makes sense thematically I don’t like that the final enemy is weakened after every battle. The problem with this mechanic is that players who get to the final enemy early will likely just weaken it for the other players. If a player reaches the final enemy early there really is no reason to fight him unless the player has most or all of their power chips available to them since they likely will fail and that will just make it easier for another player to come from behind and steal victory from them. This mechanic kind of defeats the purpose of trying to reach the end as quickly as possible since likely all of the players will reach the end before someone is able to win. Basically the end of the game comes down to whichever player is lucky enough to roll well in the final battle.
Speaking of bad mechanics I didn’t really care for the mechanic of the player to the left of the current player being able to switch around enemies. I can see what the game was trying to do but it really doesn’t benefit the game. I like that the mechanic allows players some control over what enemies they face but the mechanic really doesn’t do much for the game and mostly just adds unnecessary time to the game. Basically I think the best way to approach the mechanic is to look at the enemy in front of the current player as well as the enemy in front of your own character. You then want to switch the two enemies if your enemy is stronger than the enemy in front of the other player. As all of the other players are likely to do the exact same thing, it basically becomes musical chairs as each player places the tougher enemy in front of the current player.
As far as the components are concerned, they are pretty typical of a 1990s Milton Bradley game. The pieces are made of cardboard. The artwork is fine as fans of the series will probably like it. While I give the game credit for actually having quite a few pieces, the game kind of suffers due to having so many components that don’t really add anything to the game. I don’t know why the game needed to have three different playing pieces that you switch between. While it might add to the theme of the game, it does nothing but waste time. Then there is the whole idea of assembling Megazord which might be thematic but serves no real purpose for the gameplay since everyone is going to remember if everyone has reached the final enemy. Fans of the series will probably like the components quite a bit but everyone else will probably think they are kind of blah.
While I was a little surprised by the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game, it is still not that great of game. The biggest problem is that the game is pretty boring. While more entertaining than a lot of license games, it still is not that entertaining to people that aren’t fans of the series. Basically you just roll the dice hoping to roll a high number with the occasional decision of whether to play a power chip. The game also has a lot of unnecessary mechanics that just make the game longer than it should be. While I can see young children and fans of the series enjoying the game, I don’t see it really working for anyone else.
Should You Buy the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game?
Not really being a fan of the Power Rangers franchise and the fact that most license games are terrible led me to not having high expectations for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game. After playing the game I have to say that I was a little surprised by it. I liked that the game decided to make a dice battling game instead of just resorting to just another generic roll and move game. I also liked the idea of the power chips since they add some decisions to the game while also introducing a light risk/reward mechanic. The problem is that there isn’t much else to the game. The battle mechanics are really light and the game has a lot of mechanics that add unnecessary length to the game. While it is better than a lot of license games, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game is still a pretty boring game.
If you don’t have young children or aren’t a fan of the franchise I don’t see you enjoying the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game. If you have young children or are a fan of the franchise though you may get a little enjoyment out of the game. I would only recommend picking up the game though if you can get a good deal on it.
If you would like to purchase the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Game you can find it online: Amazon, eBay