Game Preview: Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid

Earlier today, we got an official announcement from Renegade Game Studios that Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid will be coming to Kickstarter on August 14^th. We got a few details, so let’s dive right in. I will be speaking on this from both a board game fan and a lifelong Power Ranger fan.

“Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid is a co-operative board game by famed designer Jonathan Ying that challenges 2-5 players to save Angel Grove from Rita Repulsa’s evil army of monsters in real time.”

A few things jump out here. First, it says co-operative. This is fantastic for me as a parent of young children who might not be able to play this on their own. It lets me be on the same team as them, and help them along so they get the gameplay experience as well.

Also, it’s 2-5 players. The first thing a lot of people said in various comments sections was “What about Tommy, the Green Ranger?” I think there will either be a 6^th player stretch goal, or the game will revolve around using all 5 Rangers to assemble the Megazord. Even if the Green Ranger is not a playable character, his presence will be felt in other areas of the game. More on this later.

“All the classic characters you know and love come to life on the table thanks to Dan Mora on art and amazing, over-sized plastic miniatures.”

Dan Mora’s art is fantastic. He’s an artist on BOOM Studio’s Go Go Power Rangers comic book. He’s very familiar with the Power Rangers and is more than capable of evoking nostalgia of characters we remember while keeping the images fresh and dynamic. There’s a short list of artists that could instill confidence among Ranger fans to handle this type of project, and Mora is one of them.

This has me excited: “over-sized plastic miniatures”. Are all the miniatures over-sized? I don’t know. But if anything is to be over-sized it’s going to be the Megazord. This could mean that just the Megazords and giant monsters are over-sized for the end-game combat, while Rangers and their early game foes are all more basic sized miniatures. However, they could take the route of all miniatures being over-sized, so that they wouldn’t need to produce small and large minis of each evil space alien. All minis could be the same size, so that no matter the scale of heroes, the same villain mini would be used each time. Personally, I’d lean towards only having Megazords and certain monsters as over-sized. This would probably be cheaper to produce, and the novelty of using the over-sized minis wouldn’t wear off.

“In Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid, up to 5 players become Power Rangers to battle the forces of darkness using martial arts, teamwork, and giant assault vehicles (known as zords)!

Included in the core game experience are brutal enemies like Rita Repulsa, Pudgy Pig, Madame Woe, and relentless swarms of Putty Patrollers all for the Mighty Morphin’ team to tackle!”

Hey, there we go! We get some official villains named. Rita Repulsa is the iconic big bad from the first few seasons of the TV series. Her henchmen would make or recruit other monsters, she would give them orders, and get frustrated when they were defeated. She’s the one that would use her magic powers to make the monsters grow before battling the Megazord. Madame Woe and Pudgy Pig are two of the more iconic and memorable monsters from the first season of the show. It is worth mentioning that in the show both of these monsters were defeated by the Rangers WITHOUT using their zords. They simply used their Power Weapons to form the Power Blaster and win without the monster ever growing to towering proportions. That said, I don’t think that’s any kind of indicator here. I fully expect these monsters to be able to battle the Megazord.

“THE SHATTERED GRID EXPANSION

From a twisted reality where the Rangers have fallen, Lord Drakkon has risen and formed a deadly army to cross dimensions and threaten all of reality via the Morphin’ Grid itself!

The Shattered Grid expansion features new locations and challenging new foes directly from the pages from BOOM Studios’ award-winning comic series. Included in this set: The Ranger Slayer, Black Dragon, and of course, the mastermind himself: Lord Drakkon! But all is not lost, brand new allies from across time and dimension join in the battle: Power Rangers Hyperforce (straight from the hit series on HyperRPG)!”

This. Is. Huge.

First off, The Shattered Grid has been an event in the comic books that started with the familiar Power Rangers mythos from the TV series, and introduced even more background and depth through parallel dimensions. I mentioned earlier that I’d come back to talking about the Green Mighty Morphin Ranger, Tommy Oliver. Lord Drakkon is an evil alternate dimension version of Tommy Oliver who has both the Green and White Ranger power. Drakkon is bent on destroying all Rangers across all realities. So, we now know that not only does this game rely on the BOOM Studio’s artist Dan Mora, but it will pull directly from stories and events in the comics as well. It doesn’t need to just be from the TV series to be on the table.

Next, the inclusion of Power Rangers Hyperforce is just as big of a deal. Hyperforce is a team of Power Rangers that has never been on television. Hyperforce started out as a series of online role playing videos. Different actors and gamers sat around to play an original role playing game set in a Power Rangers story, created characters, and called themselves Power Rangers Hyperforce. That team of Rangers has been featured in the comic from BOOM Studios, and now are becoming a part of this tabletop game from Renegade. The Hyperforce Power Rangers, which started out as creations for a tabletop game, are now official playable characters in a Power Rangers tabletop game. We have come full circle, ladies and gentlemen. Truly, nothing is off the table in terms of source material that Renegade can pull from for this game. And that is amazing.

“Playable copies of Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid will be available at Power Morphicon in Anaheim, CA August 17-19. Stop by our booth to admire our morphinominal minis and learn how to play the game!”

This is great because I will be at Power Morphicon! I will get to take a look at the game in just a few short weeks. I will be sure to post a follow-up article complete with all of the facts we learn once the Kickstarter goes live on August 14^th and my own experience from Power Morphicon.

As a board game fan and a Power Rangers fan, I will hold this game to a very high standard on both fronts. If Renegade skimps on the flavor and theme, merely pasting the Power Rangers skin on a game, it will fall flat for me. If Renegade plans on the only putting a half-hearted effort in to the mechanics and gameplay, expecting the Power Rangers theme to make the sales, I will be highly critical of it. That said, I have the utmost confidence because Renegade is a quality, award-winning game studio with a great reputation. I’m also confident that Renegade wants this to be a game that Power Rangers fans will enjoy because they are NOT debuting it at the San Diego Comic Con where they could get the largest potential audience. They are NOT debuting it at Gen Con where the largest community of gamers would be able to take a look at it. They ARE debuting it at Power Morphicon, so Power Ranger fans are the first to take a look at it. That kind of special care and attention goes a long way in believing they have the fans’ hearts in mind. I’ve been waiting for a game like this for a long time. Finally, it’s morphin’ time.