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The Game of the Month for April 2026 is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (the game) for the Sega Genesis. This is distinct from the three other games with the same title for the Super Nintendo, Game Gear, and Game Boy, accounting for four separate development efforts from three developers sharing no common code or even, apparently, game assets. Indeed, the apparent common thread between these games seems to begin and end with Haim Saban.
Focusing on the Genesis entry itself, the game is a one- or two-player beat ‘em up retelling the events of the (non-canon) movie spun off from the hit children’s action space opera, Power Rangers.
Six thousand years ago, a morphological being known as Ivan Ooze was defeated by the Order of Meledian and trapped in a hyperlock chamber. In present day Angel Grove, a construction crew (presumably rebuilding after the weekly Megazord fight) unearths the chamber, releases Ooze, and are disposed of in a PG manner off-screen.
The Power Rangers fight Ooze, lose, get their powers taken away, teleport to the planet Pheados, find a new mentor, defeat the stone gargoyles, reach the Temple of Great Power, gain new powers that are visually indistinct from the powers they just lost on Earth, teleport back to Earth, and fight Ooze’s giant ectomorphicons with their new Megazord.
If that last sentence feels rushed through, it’s because it describes everything that happened in the cutscene between stages 1 and 2. It’s also about 90% of the runtime of the actual movie. At least the cutscenes are told in a fun little comic book 2×2 panel format.
There are six stages in total. The first two cover just about the whole movie, then we are treated to an extended flashback of season two highlighting its two-parter episodes. Stage 3 covers White Light, stage 4 The Ninja Encounter, and stage 5 The Power Transfer. Stage 6 finally returns to the plot of the movie with a short Megazord fight against Ivan Ooze inhabiting his ectomorphicon.
The season two recap gives plenty of opportunities to play as my personal favorite Megazord, the Thunder Megazord. Funnily enough, we also get extended time with three of the power rangers (not in the actual movie) who were killed off sent on a peace mission coincidentally after their actors asked for a compensation somewhat resembling minimum wage. The way this works out, we seem to get more time with season two rangers and zords than the movie versions.
The gameplay is straightforward. Jump with C, attack with A, special attack with B. There is a decent depth to the attack commands. Holding the attack will charge one of the power weapons, unique to each ranger. Repeating an attack combo will result in some mixture of punches, kicks, blade blasters, or power weapons, depending on the ranger.
All six rangers are playable, with the season two and three counterparts playing identically. The special attack will drain your health if it lands. Double tapping the D-pad lets you sprint. Both jumping and dashing combine with the attack button for reach and some pretty effective hit boxes, especially when Goldar is flying around. Megazord fights operate similarly, but a touch slower and without a jump button.
The real highlight of this game is the music. Ron Wasserman did some fine work on providing a kid-friendly heavy metal soundtrack to the show, which the Genesis sound chip recreates beautifully.
I encourage you to listen to the original songs as well to compare. Some of the song titles even appear as Easter eggs in the background. A great deal of effort also was put into the character sprites and cutscene art for what must have been a very tight development deadline for the movie tie-in license.
MMPR: The Movie: The Game is possibly my favorite beat ‘em up. I won’t claim to be a huge fan of the genre, but the music, graphics, and my enjoyment of the Power Ranger themselves line up for me in a way that Golden Axe and Streets of Rage just don’t. Perhaps the X-Men arcade game comes as a distant second.
It’s a fun time for Ranger fans, only about half an hour long, replays well, and is fun to listen to. Give it a try if you are looking for a quick Genesis action romp. And may the power protect you.
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