Like recent Avengers and Dragon Ball Z Kinect games, Power Rangers Super Samurai tries to base a full-body combat experience around its color-coded martial artists, letting you slash and kick to pummel an array of freaky monsters. Unfortunately, severe motion miscues paired with shallow, tedious action just make for a Kinect calamity.
With an on-rails approach propelling your hero forward with each successive attack, you’ll slice through waves of identical goons in eight episodes; the whole thing’s playable with a same-screen comrade and fully cleared in two hours or less. Most missions end with a quick battle against an on-foot boss, followed by a super-sized skirmish using your towering, team-based Megazord robot (who you control single-handedly), but in any scenario, the combat’s messy and aggravating.
Though your Ranger’s arms mimic yours, only repetitive up-and-down slashes consistently register as strikes; as a result, a single motion drives much of the gameplay. Boss creatures, meanwhile, must be defeated using a Ranger’s lone, unique finishing move — but as the Pink Ranger, we tried repeatedly to pull off the depicted motion (involving a metallic hand fan), which the game failed to accept. To progress, we ultimately had to restart the mission and play it using another of the four playable Rangers.
Simon Says–like “fitness” routines that superimpose your image next to the Rangers are too brief and simplistic to be more than a hollow bonus diversion. They’re the cherry atop an outrageously slight, unattractive, and ill-refined tribute to a franchise that deserves better.
Sometimes your attack will push you past foes, so they'll just disappear. Slick.PUBLISHER: Namco Bandai • DEVELOPER: Namco Bandai • ESRB: Teen • Multiplayer: 2 on same screen (cooperative play) • ACHIEVEMENTS: Simple • COST: $40 • RELEASE DATE: December 4, 2012
– Shallow combat within repetitive missions.
– Consistent issues with movement recognition.
– Very little to do, and it’s all poorly presented.
? Will there ever be a great Power Rangers game?
