Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

Go To

Spoilers for all preceding Power Rangers entries and the Boom! Studios comic book series will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/powerrangersbftg01.jpg

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a Power Rangers Fighting Game developed by nWaynote  using the Unity engine. It was released on PlayStation 4 on April 2 2019 in the US and March 28 2019 in Europe, for Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on March 26 2019 and for PC via Steam on September 24, 2019. On May 25, 2021, a "Super Edition" of the game was released, containing all of the DLC Characters and Skins from the first three packs, along with the original game's content. Here's the game's site.

It has significantly different gameplay from Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, appearing more like a traditional fighting game (albeit with more accessible controls). Fights are conducted as 3-vs.-3 Tag Team battles, akin to the Marvel vs. Capcom later entries. Its roster pulls characters from throughout the franchise's history, including the Boom! Studios comic book.

Also worth noting is that Battle for the Grid is the second Power Rangers game to receive a Teen rating from the ESRB. The first was Power Rangers: Super Samurai for Xbox 360.

    Playable Characters 

Tropes:

  • Actor Allusion: In his official trailer, the Quantum Ranger (voiced by Dan Southworth) says "Foolishness, Lord Zedd" and "I need more Quantum power!" Tagging him in also has him say "I'm motivated!"
    • Further Devil May Cry references came with Adam Park's reveal. The Black Ninja Ranger, voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, is shown beating up Eric/Quantum Ranger in the Season 4 trailer.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The Story Mode is a video game version of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid, but there are corners they had to cut to speed things up. For instance, Drakkon doesn't go through an extended attack on the main universe like he did in the comics, instead making his first appearance in the Command Center and going straight for Tommy's death. As well, Tommy's resurrection happens before Drakkon can create his new world.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: The "100" on S.P.D. Shadow Ranger's chest becomes "001" when he is facing the left.
  • Anti-Frustration Features
    • The game uses a simplified input system that doesn't require the use of quarter-circles and other 2D fighting game staples. Instead there is a dedicated "Special" button and every character has four specials that involve hitting the button while holding forward, backward, or nothing (for ground specials) as well as a single air special. Every character also has a single EX attack (accomplished by pressing Light and Special simultaneously while on the ground) and super attacks are performed by pressing Heavy and Special together. Characters also have auto-combos that are accomplished by pressing a single attack button several times in repetition to give new players a way to ease into the combo system.
    • Rather than the characters arriving with a Dynamic Entry when they are tagged, they simply teleport in and out. This means you can swap characters without having to worry about the new character coming in with an unsafe jump-in move. Furthermore, tagging is accomplished by hitting the appropriate Assist button twice, meaning you are able to choose whether or not you want your assist attack to play out before committing to a character switch. However, unlike Dragon Ball FighterZ, the characters will jump in when their partner goes down (similar to how Marvel vs. Capcom character switches occur after an elimination) so you still must be ready to deal with an incoming mixup when you lose a character.
  • Ascended Extra: In the Story Mode, quite a few characters play much bigger roles than they did in the comic story, even if they didn't show up.
  • Big Bad: Lord Drakkon, reprising his role from the Boom! comic book.
  • Breakout Mook Character: The Mastodon Sentry, of all things, is the first Mook to be playable, taking part in the launch roster.
  • Cap: Rather than having a hitstun decay effect, Battle for the Grid limits combos by a "combo timer" (called the "juggle limiter" in the game's terminology) that begins as soon as a combo starts. Landing hits during a combo will speed the timer up relative to the attack used and once it's full, the opponent will automatically flip out of the combo, meaning you need to be familiar with your character's combos to know when to cash it out with an ending attack. Also certain attacks will simply end a combo immediately, irrespective of the timer's current state. The only place to see the timer active is in Practice mode (where it appears below the hitstun gauge).
  • Comeback Mechanic: You cannot call your Zord in until you've taken sufficient damage, and if you use it on your final character, it stays active for longer. Later patches altered this behavior so the Zords are not as reliant on purely being bail-out mechanics but a more complex part of the match flow.
  • Creator Cameo: The Black Mastodon Sentry is voiced by Kyle Higgins, writer of both the game & the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid storyline.
  • Developer's Foresight: Tommy has an alternate White Ranger skin, but his character model isn't the only thing that's changed. The animations for his super are altered, replacing the Dragonzord launching finger missiles for the White Tigerzord shooting chest fireballs, and even replacing the startup animation to remove the Dragon Dagger flute-playing (it still works the same in terms of attack area, damage, etc.).
  • Downloadable Content: Lots, released in multiple waves. All the paid DLC packs include three characters, their Arcade Mode story, and an alternate skin for a previously released character. The Digital Collector's Edition includes the Free Update and DLC Pack 1 content, while the Super Collection includes everything up to DLC Pack 3. Any Megazord summons shown are part of a free update available for all players regardless if they buy the DLC or not.
    • Free Update 1 - Dragon Armor Yellow Ranger, Mystic Force White Ranger, Cenozoic Blue Ranger
    • Digital Collector's Edition - Mighty Morphin Pink Rangernote , Mighty Morphin Green Ranger Version 2note , and Lord Drakkon Evo IInote 
    • DLC Pack 1 - Lord Zedd, Zeo Gold Ranger 1, Time Force Pink Ranger, Dragon Armor Mighty Morphin Red Rangernote 
    • DLC Pack 2 - Time Force Quantum Ranger, SPD Shadow Ranger, Dai Shi, Mighty Morphin White Rangernote , Delta Squad Megazord summon
    • DLC Pack 3 - Scorpina, Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger, Samurai Red Samurai Ranger IInote , Phantom Beast Kingnote , Samurai Megazord summon
    • Street Fighter Pack - Crimson Hawk Rangernote , Blue Phoenix Rangernote , and Class of '93 Ryu & Chun-Li Warrior skins
    • DLC Pack 4 - Rita Repulsa, Mighty Morphin Black Ranger IInote , Poisandra, Helmetless Doggie Krugernote , Gravezordnote  Summon
  • Explosive Overclocking: Unlike the original storyline, Drakkon is done in by the overdose of Morphin' energies within his body, going nuclear after Tommy defeats him.
  • Expy: Since the game was developed by Marvel vs. Capcom players, several of the characters play a lot like MvC. For example, the Quantum Ranger plays like a mix of Cable and Vergil (the latter being an Actor Allusion) while Dai Shi is like a mix of Black Panther and Akuma, with a dash of Wesker for his super, and Evil Ryu/Kage for his axe kick. For very obvious reasons, Ryu and Chun-Li take a lot of inspiration from their time spent there for their appearances here; to just highlight them even further, the button usually reserved for performing a character's special is replaced with a launcher, replicating the control scheme of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 entirely for them.
  • Final Boss: At the end of Arcade Mode, you fight Lord Drakkon by himself but you must deplete his life bar four times in order to win. Prior to that you fight Goldar and a pair of Mastadon Sentries then the Ranger Slayer with a triple life bar and a Mastadon Sentry with a double life bar.
  • Guest Fighter: Similar to Legacy Wars, Battle for the Grid received two Street Fighter characters as paid DLC in 2021: Ryu as the "Crimson Hawk Ranger" and Chun-Li as the "Blue Phoenix Ranger".
  • Intra-Franchise Crossover: Like Legacy Wars before it, Battle for the Grid features characters from across the series' history, from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to Power Rangers Ninja Steel.
  • Limit Break: Each character has a special attack that can deal massive damage. For instance, Lord Drakkon slams down Saba and his Dragon Dagger to create an energy wave on the ground, while the Green Ranger summons the Dragonzord to rain down missiles.
  • Mana Meter: Resource management is governed by a three-section super meter. EX moves require a single segment while Super moves require two.
  • Mythology Gag:
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: Sort of. While the models are similar to the ones from Power Rangers: Legacy Warsnote , they actually appear to have a higher polygonal count, and the materials were redone.
  • Role-Reversal Boss: Purposely done. Many times during Story Mode, when the main heroes are supposed to lose against Lord Drakkon and his cohorts, the player actually takes control of the bad guys.
  • Shout-Out:
    • One of the Quantum Ranger's gun animations is taken directly from Cable in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. However, it's not just that, but a few characters share similar attack animations from other characters in other fighting games as well.
    • Speaking of Quantum Ranger, several of his quotes are obvious references to Vergil. Given that Dan Southworth voices both characters, it makes sense.
      • In a more oblique reference, if the player performs the fully-charged version of the Quantum Ranger's gun attack he'll say "Maximum!" with an extremely similar inflection to the announcer from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 — a game which Vergil dominated, and which was a major inspiration for BFTG.
    • One of the Quantum Rangers quotes when using a special is Quantum Leap.
  • Some Dexterity Required: Defied - the game's initial advertising noted its streamlined control scheme, unlike traditional fighting games.
    "Gone are overly complicated command inputs or long patterns. In this easy to learn, hard to master game, the depth is knowing when to strike, not how."
    • Averted for the Street Fighter representatives. Outside of a single EX move and their supers, Ryu and Chun-Li's specials must be done with their traditional motion and charge inputs, as the special button instead has them perform a Marvel vs. Capcom-styled launcher as opposed to the rest of the cast.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: There are an oddly large amount of Boom! Studios comic characters in the roster - one-in-three both at launch and in the DLC update. That's even more than the original Mighty Morphin' series gets.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: The game's core comeback mechanic, which can be considered the 4th member of your team, is your Megazord. After you take enough damage, you can summon your Megazord to stomp and shoot the battlefield, covering most of the screen. In addition, Tommy can summon the Dragonzord for his super. If he's using the White Ranger skin, then he'll summon the Tigerzord instead.
  • Tag Team: Much like Marvel vs. Capcom and Dragon Ball FighterZ, each player controls three characters that can be switched and summoned for assist attacks. A unique gameplay feature that separates Battle is, beyond assist attacks, you can convert your assist to a tag by hitting the assist button while they're still out (the other games require you to perform a dedicated tag action to switch characters and you can't switch to another character while they're being used as an assist), allowing you to adjust your approach if it's more favorable to swap characters after their assist is used.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Foolishness

Dan Southworth's characters always seem to be motivated by something.

Example of:
Actor Allusion

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

Foolishness

Dan Southworth's characters always seem to be motivated by something.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (16 votes)

Example of:

Main / ActorAllusion

Media sources:

Report