Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition is a 1995 Fighting Game developed by Natsume and published by Bandai for the Super NES. The game is based on Seasons 2 and 3 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
While most of the previous games emphasized the Rangers and ground combat, this game is all about the Megazords. None of the Rangers are themselves selectable, you instead play as one of the Megazords and fight other Megazords as well as giant monsters.
No official port exists for the Sega Genesis, but there is an unofficial bootleg version made for the console.
The playable roster includes 9 characters:
- Thunder Megazord
- Mega Tigerzord
- Ninja Megazord
- Shogun Megazord
- Lord Zedd
- Goldar
- Lip Syncher
- Silver Horns
- Ivan Ooze*
Tropes:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Lip Syncher's design in the game has her skin color changed to look more human rather than the unnatural pale from the costume in the show.
- Adaptational Badass:
- The Megazords are much faster and more agile than in the show, where they are lumbering giants. Some of them also have powers invented for the game, like Mega Tigerzord throwing giant fireballs to give them attacks to fill out their movelists.
- Lip Syncher in the show is a Monster of the Week who was beaten by the individual zords, while in this game, she is capable of taking on zords combined into a Megazord and winning.
- Ivan Ooze is far from harmless in his movie appearance, but to fight a Megazord, he had to merge with one of his robots. In this game, he can grow large enough to fight a Megazord on his own.
- Adaptational Superpower Change:
- The Thunder Megazord gains the ability to shoot fireballs from its chest armor, both in regular and super forms.
- The Ninja Megazord leans heavily into the "ninja" aspect of its name, with all kinds of disappearing tricks and quick moves.
- Lord Zedd doesn't use his Magic Staff as anything besides a melee weapon, unlike the show, with his magic powers instead coming from using his hands.
- Adapted Out: The Falconzord is completely gone in this game. Neither the Ninja nor Shogun Megazords use it in their combos or Super Moves.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: The Megazords all play this completely straight:
- Thunder Megazord always has its sheath and Griffin Thunderzord leg facing the player.
- Mega Tigerzord also always has the Griffin Thunderzord leg facing the player.
- Ninja Megazord always has the Ape Ninjazord arm facing the player.
- Shogun Megazord always has the Blue Shogunzord arm and Yellow Shogunzord leg facing the player.
- Ascended Extra: Lip Syncher and Silver Horns go from one-off monsters to fully playable fighters.
- Behemoth Battle: The entire game consists of fights between Humongous Mecha and giant monsters.
- The Cameo:
- Zordon and Serpentera appear in the background of the Megazords' stages and Lord Zedd's stage respectively.
- The Rangers appear in the beginning and ending cutscenes of Story Mode.
- Character Select Forcing: Only the Thunder Megazord and Mega Tigerzord can be used in Story Mode.
- Death by Adaptation: After defeating Goldar in the penultimate level, you're treated to a cutscene of him exploding like the other monsters usually do.
- Demoted to Extra:
- The Power Rangers themselves. They only show up in the beginning and ending of Story Mode.
- The Firebird Thunderzord only ever appears on the Mega Tigerzord when using its Super Attack.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Lord Zedd is tricky to use correctly because of different lightning bolts and teleports for long and short ranges. Using him correctly means learning when to use which of his teleports and when to use which of his lightning attacks. In the right hands, however, he is devastating thanks to the mobility allowing him to zip in and out of close quarters and his fast attacks, making him excel at combos. There is a reason why he is the penultimate opponent in story mode.
- Evil Is Bigger: Inverted: the Megazords used by the heroic Power Rangers are bigger than the villains in the game.
- Excuse Plot: There isn't even one of these. Story Mode begins with the Rangers summoning either the Thunder Megazord or the Mega Tigerzord and the only cutscenes after that are of your character destroying your non-Megazord opponents after the match.
- Final Boss: Ivan Ooze in Story Mode. As he is also a Secret Character, he doesn't have a stage to himself and shares Lord Zedd's.
- Fragile Speedster: Ninja Megazord is the closest to this, trading in offensive power for more speed and agility.
- Game-Over Man: If the player loses a match in Story Mode, Lord Zedd appears on the continue screen with his finger on whichever button is currently selected.
- Impossibly Graceful Giant: The characters in this game are either giant robots or giant monsters, and while the sound effects emphasize the weight behind their impacts, they still move with the speed and grace of human-sized characters in fighting games.
- Interface Screw: The portraits above the life meters can cause this if the fight gets pushed into a corner. Luckily, you can turn them off in the Options menu.
- Jack of All Stats: Thunder Megazord is the most balanced fighter and the easiest for newcomers to get a handle around.
- Long-Range Fighter: Ivan Ooze might well be the most overpowered case in a fighting game. Almost all of his attacks are projectiles and he can float at jump indefinitely. This allows him to stay in the top corner of the screen and spam projectiles. Two of his moves launch homing projectiles that are almost impossible to dodge!
- Mana Meter: Unlike other fighting games, this fills up automatically. If you perform a special move right when the gauge fills up, your meter will go up a level. At Level 3, the meter will be replaced by lightning bolts, allowing you to use your Super Special Move
- Mighty Glacier:
- Shogun Megazord is significantly taller than the other fighters, making it a bigger target, but it is much slower. However, it cannot be thrown at all, has massive offensive power, and the longest reach for its attacks, with its sheer height even allowing it to hit jumping enemies without jumping itself.
- Next to the Shogun Megazord, Silver Horns is the biggest character in the game, and as one can expect, he hits hard and is very slow, albeit being a bit faster than the Shogun Megazord.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lyp Syncher has more noticeable curves than in the show, and her various kicks show off her butt, which is barely covered by a leotard.
- No Ending: When you beat Story Mode, you get a shot of the four Megazords, the Rangers posing in front of them, and text that reads "Morphinomenal! Go go Power Rangers!" Then the credits roll.
- No-Sell: The Shogun Megazord and Ivan Ooze are immune to throws.
- Power Floats: Ivan Ooze freely floats around the stage. His boss fight usually has him stuck in the upper portion of the stage, requiring you to use jump attacks to knock him in range of your special attacks. Even without floating at jump height, crunching attacks do not hit him.
- Promoted to Playable: This is the first time Lord Zedd has been playable.
- Secret Character: Ivan Ooze has to be unlocked via a code. Unless you look it up online, the only way to get the code is to beat Hard Mode.
- Shoto Clone: Downplayed with the Thunder Megazord. It has a fireball style projectile and a Shoryuken style uppercut, but lacks any sort of Spin Attack.
- The Smurfette Principle: While you can make the case that the Pink and Yellow Rangers are technically helping to pilot whatever Megazord is fighting, if we strictly talk in terms of the roster itself, the only female fighter is Lip Syncher.
- SNK Boss: Ivan Ooze. For starters, he floats so he cannot be hit low or thrown and can indefinitely stay at jump height, making it tricky to hit him. Almost all of his attacks are projectiles that deal heavy damage, and his one close range move has high priority and hits enemies across the screen if not blocked. Two of his attacks launch homing projectiles that are almost impossible to avoid, and the less damaging of the attacks makes Ivan invincible during it and can be used while in hitstun. Ivan cannot block and has no supers, but his attacks deal so much damage he doesn't need them, and his move that makes him invincible gives him better protection than a block.
- Spin Attack:
- The Ninja Megazord has multiple attacks that involve turning around, either from spinning like a top or having a leg extended in a Hurricane Kick.
- The Shogun Megazord has an attack where it holds its sword while spinning its mechanical torso.
- Super Special Move: Most of the Super Attacks are powered-up versions of normal Special Attacks. For example, the Thunder Megazord's Super is a massive energy beam fired from its chest, which is a beefed up version of its Fireball special attack.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Goldar's super move has him summon a giant laser from the sky.
- Winged Humanoid: Goldar. His wings serve a purpose in-game, allowing him to fly for short periods.
