Power Rangers: Dino Thunder
The Gameboy Advance was home to five different games based on the Power Rangers license, all published by THQ. Released annually from 2001, each handheld game took on a different Power Rangers show, with 2004’s Dino Thunder taking on the series that brought back Tommy Oliver, as portrayed by Jason David Frank. Also released for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, Power Rangers: Dino Thunder wasn’t very well received on any platform – but was that deserved for its GBA incarnation?
Protect all humans!
Power Rangers: Dino Thunder is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up with platforming elements, following the plotline of the tv series of the same name. Taking control of the three core rangers, you’ll find yourself completing tasks to free humans and defeating monsters. Each mission puts you in the boots of one of three rangers (Conner, Kira or Ethan) across 20 different levels, making up 13 missions. The game switches things up slightly by incorporating puzzle missions, but these are few in number and perhaps even less interesting to play than the beat ‘em up ones, and those have some major issues.
Same old story (or in this case, combat)
Combat is just not fun. There’s only one attack button and enemies are mostly all the same. There’s no variance and it really hurts the game. Levels consist of you fighting through one enemy after the other, sometimes two at once – and it never really gets any better. There’s no sense of progression or drive. It’s disappointing that a game based on a series with such an emphasis on combat would have such a lackluster combat system.
Jumping the shark
Another glaring issue with Dino Thunder is the platforming. Whilst every ranger can jump fairly high, platforming segments can only be completed in a specific order. Even though you might be able to jump from the first to the third platform in a sequence, it won’t count – you must jump to the second before the third, and so on. It just adds this weird padding to each mission, and it’s rather frustrating. Missions seem to drag on and outstay their welcome far too often, and there’s no real reason to keep pushing on when it’s all just more of the same.
I just don’t think the Gameboy Advance was the right platform for the Power Rangers. Over time we saw much better games on home consoles like Battle for the Grid and Mega Battle. Dino Thunder just turned out to be too bland to leave any sort of lasting impression on the platform, and had too many issues to be enjoyable. This is probably a game only diehard fans of this specific Power Rangers show could enjoy, or perhaps series completionists. All in all, Dino Thunder is not a must-play.
Pros
- Lets you play as multiple rangers.
- Decent visuals.
Cons
- Platforming isn’t great.
- Combat is bland and unexciting.
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