One of the best memories of old tokusatsu was playing the SNES Power Rangers game with my friend Jay. The game, while easy, was always a fun beat-em-up that had really good graphics, cool music, and characters we actually cared about. We had fights as to who could play as Kimberly for two reasons. The first being that she was the character EVERYONE had a crush on, besides Tommy Oliver. I myself loved Trini as well, but that brings me to the second reason Kimberly rocks in the game: She had A BOW. Projectile weapons! You could shoot a Putty from across the screen, which was awesome.
Then we all went to go see the Power Rangers movie. It was awesome (read: awesome through the eyes of kids, one of which belonged to the Power Rangers Fan Club.) We played the game as well, and…wow it got hard. That game was brutal in parts.
But hey, which games should you look for besides those two? Choujin Sentai Jetman and Kyatto Ninden Teyandee:
The first is based on the series of the same name, which was the predecessor to Zyuranger, the show that would eventually become Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. The controls are smooth and the action is great. The only weak parts are the boss battles. The patterns are easy to learn, and you can just power up your super attack and block while it’s charging. Easy.
The second is not necessarily tokusatsu, but more a parody of it. Kyatto Ninden Teyandee would eventually come to America via Canada as “Samurai Pizza Cats.” Like the Jetman game, the controls are smooth, and you can call upon the support cats to help you out and find secrets. It plays like Ninja Gaiden, and each cat has their own attacks. The bosses can range from pathetic to difficult, but there’s not too many tough parts.
I haven’t played every tokusatsu game, and there’s a few I’d like to forget, but if you have a favorite, please feel free to leave a comment and get me interested! I love hearing from you!
- Trevor
