Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue is a 2000 action game made for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, loosely based off the TV series of the same name. It was developed by Climax Studios (PlayStation) and Mass Media (N64) and published by THQ.
A Beat 'em Up-style action game by nature, the player assumes one of the five Rangers and battles their way through hordes and hordes of Queen Bansheera's underlings and her Batling army, through levels set in offices, waterfronts, a partially-destroyed city wrecked by an active volcano, and their own underwater base before confronting Bansheera in her hideout.
There was also a Game Boy Color game, developed by Natsume but still published by THQ. In this game, there are three different missions in each level. The first has you rescue civilians, the second to take out all the Batlings, and the third to defeat the monster using the Lightspeed Megazord.
Tropes relating to the PlayStation/N64 game:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: "Lightspeed Rescue!" sees the Ranger's base being captured by Queen Bansheera herself, just as the Rangers defeat Olympius. The next level have them attempting to infiltrate their own base to rescue Captain Mitchell, Miss Fairweather, and a number of civilians trapped in there while defeating Bansheera's forces.
- The Battle Didn't Count: Jinxer, which you fought on the Lightspeed Supertrain, will repeatedly menace you on each and every carriage. You need to defeat Jinxer at the back of the train, proceed to the next carriage, only for Jinxer to return and your battle to replay, again and again until you reached the Supertrain's front.
- Behemoth Battle: When you get to pilot the Supertrain Megazord against bosses who has Make My Monster Grow abilities. Notably when you fight Loki, Darebolico, Olympius, and Queen Bansheera who grows giant-sized after their initial defeat.
- Boss Bonanza: "Go Volcanic" ends with your Ranger fighting Fireor, Magmavore and Darebolico, all three of them showing up near the end of the stage with increasing difficulty. And Darebolico even turns kaiju-sized to fight your Train Megazord.
- Boss Rush: Before facing Queen Bansheera, you'll need to enter a room full of portals, which can summon previous bosses to re-fight you, in order; Vypra, Loki, Jinxer, Darebolico, and Olympius before facing Bansheera herself. Luckily, Loki and Darebolico who had the ability to supersize themselves after their defeat (as seen in their previous battles) somehow lose this ability in the rematch.
- Chest Blaster: The Supertrain Megazord have one built in it's chest for dealing extra damage to it's kaiju-sized foes.
- Compressed Adaptation: The video game can be finished in less than two hours (one for expert speedrunners). The TV series, on the other hand...
- Demoted to Extra: ALL the named villains of the TV series makes a comeback in video game form... as one-shot bosses. Who only exists to fight the Rangers at the end of a level, and leave after getting defeated.
- Earthquake Machine: The Quake Spikes in "Lightspeed Teamwork", artificial earthquake generators planted into the soil by Loki in order to trigger a massive quake to destroy the city. You spend the entire level hunting down all fifteen Spikes before fighting Loki.
- Flunky Boss: More than one of the bosses...
- Vypra literally starts her battle by summoning a quartet of Batlings after you landed a few hits on her. You defeat her flunkies, before she tries attacking you from up close and as you deal damage to her health, she will periodically call in more Batlings, again and again. Depending on how quickly you managed to take her down, expect her to summon between 4 to 6 waves of flunkies (which comes in fours).
- Jinxer will surround himself with mooks in each and every single one of his boss fights. Except the last one during the Boss Rush.
- Gotta Rescue Them All: The game doesn't allowed to proceed to the following area without rescuing all the hostages present, constantly forcing you to backtrack again and again to recover missing captives.
- The Ground Is Lava: "Go Volcanic!" have a meteorite sent by Diabolico hitting the city and spawning an active volcano in it's center, turning the streets into rivers of lava. The whole stage have you beating up Batlings while trying to cross the lava via floating platforms or collapsed structures without falling in, losing a life if you do.
- Henchmen Race: The Batlings from the show makes a comeback as mooks of Queen Bansheera's army, and nothing else; to the point where every non-boss enemies are Batlings!
- Humongous Mecha: The Train Megazord, who shows up when needed. And by that, means "if the defeated bosses can supersize themselves after their defeat"...
- Invisible Wall: Attempting to exit an area without completing a required objective (saving hostages, destroying the Quake Spikes, hitting switches or levers etc.) and you'll bounce off an invisible wall as the game reminds you, "SECTOR NOT CLEARED!"
- Mini-Boss: Demon Monsters and one-shot enemies from the show usually serves this role in video game form, appearing in-between levels as a stronger-than-average enemy before you face the level's boss. Notably, Shockatron is fought a few areas before Vypra, Smogger appears before Loki, while you'll need to face two easier bosses before fighting Darebolico.
- Mission Control: Captain Mitchell and Miss Fairweather will occasionally drop hints during gameplay advising you on how to proceed, though around half of their advices borders on unnecessary due to being Captain Obvious.Captain Mitchell: [before you fight Darebolico, the boss at the end of "Go Volcanic!"] Rangers, you must defeat Darebolico!
- Monstrous Scenery: "Lightspeed Teamwork" is set near a coastline where in the waters, you can see numerous Shark Fin of Doom circling all around. But none of the sharks will even attempt leaping onto dry land, let alone attacking you.
- Phantom Zone: Whenever the boss have the ability to grow kaiju-sized, and you're given access to the Train Megazord, the game then teleports both of you to an ethereal world made of purple and blue aura to prevent collateral damage in civilian areas.
- Roofhopping: In "Go Volcanic!", owing to the city being half-sunken in volcanic lava.
- Secret Character: The Titanium Ranger, who can be unlocked after beating the game at it's hardest level.
- Traintop Battle: "Rail Rescue" is set atop the out-of-control Train Megazord, and you need to fight your way from the back carriage to the front via traintop while Jinxer and several Batlings attempt to stop you.
Tropes relating to the Game Boy Color version:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Diabolico is too strong for the Lightspeed Megazord, so you fight him as the Supertrain Megazord instead.
- 100% Completion: You need this in all five regular areas in order to fight Diobolico.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: In Rescue missions, you can get massive shears that can cut through extremely thick metal cables easily.
- Action-Based Mission: The Battle and Megazord missions focus on battling Batlings and demons.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The Batlings appear in the splash screen in their black outfits, but in-game they are purple instead.
- Adaptation Name Change: Smogger is called Aquafiend in this game,
- Adapted Out: On the heroes' side, Captain Mitchell, Miss Fairweather, the Titanium Ranger, the Lifeforce Megazord, the Omega Megazord, and the Rangers' V-Lancers and Mega Battle Armors are gone. On the villains' side, Queen Bansheera, Olympus, Loki, Vypra, and Jinxer are missing in action.
- Ascended Extra: Fireor, Magmavore, Smogger, Whirlin, and Treevill are the regular area bosses, though all of them just go by the generic title of "Monster" in-game.
- Bag of Spilling: You can't take any of your items into other levels.
- Boss-Only Level: Area 6 only consists of two boss fights, both against Diabolico. First you fight it as the Lightspeed Megazord, then as the Supertrain Megazord.
- Charge Attack: You can break down steel walls by charging your punch in Rescue missions. However, you cannot use this attack in Battle missions.
- Death from Above: Treevill will send a branch up into the air, eventually coming down as multiple wooden daggers falling from the ceiling.
- Digitized Sprites: The results screen, the character select screen portraits, as well as the Finishing Move cutscenes all use these, mostly taken from promotional screenshots.
- Down the Drain: One of the areas is the Dam level. Guess where it takes place.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Treevill appeared in this game before its debut episode had aired on TV.
- Electrified Bathtub: Not a bathtub, but the Dam and Bay areas have pools of water that are electrified and will hurt you if you step in them while they are flashing yellow.
- Eternal Engine: The Plant level takes place at a power plant that's been attacked.
- Final Boss: Diabolico, who can only be fought by saving every civilian and defeating every Batling.
- Finishing Move:
- In Battle missions, it ends with the Rangers using the Rescue Bird to finish off the demon. The camera then shows the Red Ranger saluting while the monster explosion is reflected off his visor.
- In Megazord missions, the Lightspeed Megazord swings its sword around, forming a flaming circle, then a splash screen of the Ranger slashing the monster is shown. The Supertrain Megazord fires both its Turbine Supercharge attack instead. Afterwards, a close-up shot of the Megazord's head appears while the monster explodes in the background.
- Golden Ending: You can only access this by rescuing all civilians and defeating all the Batlings before tackling the Megazord level in each Area.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: You can gain one of these to reach areas where the ladders or ropes have been burned away.
- Ground Wave: Many of the giant monsters use these during the Megazord fights.
- Hanging by the Fingers: You can grab edges to pull yourself up.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: Most of the Rescue missions take place in areas that are actively burning down.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: One is the main floor of the Plant Battle mission.
- Jack of All Stats: The Red Ranger has equal stats in all three categories: Life, Energy, and Power.
- Lethal Lava Land: Every Area in the game has been devastated by Diabolico and his demons, so there are plenty of places where the floor is on fire or fire/steam jets are spouting out.
- Magic Antidote: Some civilians are injured or sick. You need to find and administer a syringe full of healing juice to them before they can be rescued.
- Mana Meter:
- In Rescue and Battle missions, this is represented by lightning bolts under the mission timer. These power your secondary items, such as the fire extinguisher, cable cutter, your baton sword, etc. Each bolt is worth two uses, and your maximum capacity depends on the Ranger chosen. Unlike future games, this does not refill automatically.
- Megazord fights have a standard meter, separated into three bars. You can use up one bar to fire a projectile from your arms.
- Metropolis Level: The City area takes place in Mariner Bay.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: When the Lightspeed Megazord drains all of Diabolico's health, it begins to use its standard Finishing Move. However, Diabolico blocks the attack and wrecks the mecha, forcing you to summon the Supertrain Megazord to take care of him instead.
- New Game Plus: Not entirely, but if you beat the game, you'll get a password that will allow you to use the Supertrain Megazord in every level, not just the final one.
- Palette Swap: The Rangers, as usual. Averted for the Batlings, though. Only one variety shows up in the game.
- Password Save: The first of many Natsume Power Rangers games to save progress this way.
- Player Inventory:
- In Rescue missions, you can switch between Punch, Rescue Drill, Rescue Blaster, Wire Cutters, Medicine, and Grappler Hook through a sub-menu. Everything except Punch costs energy to use.
- In Battle missions, you can grab a Rescue Sword to enhance your attack, but it too costs energy to use.
- Rolling Attack: Smogger's main form of attack during his Battle mission boss battle.
- Secret Level: You can only access Area 6 by rescuing all the civilians, defeating all the Batlings, and destroying all the giant monsters. Failing any of those locks you out of the Golden Ending.
- Sinister Subway: The Subway area itself isn't that sinister, but it is being attacked by demons.
- Sinking Ship Scenario: The Bay area focuses on a tanker that has been wrecked by a tornado.
- This Is a Drill: You can find drill items that allow you to destroy thick walls your punch can't go through.
- Timed Mission: You only have 9 in-game minutes to complete the Rescue missions, 8 for the Battle missions, and 5 minutes to complete the Megazord battle.
- Tornado Move: Whirlin, the boss of the Bay area, attacks using one of these.
- Underwater Base: The final level takes place in the Aquabase.
