The Pitch: MMPR

So, previously I pitched a game based on Daredevil. Now, I've got another idea, so here we go.

As always, I work with RPG Maker 2003. I have been working with this program for a while, so most of my ideas begin with "How would this work on RPG Maker?" I'm hoping I can make an interesting game with solid core concepts regardless of the limitations of engine I'm using.

History of Power Rangers in video games.

Someone greenlighted this.

Okay, so like Daredevil, Power Rangers hasn't  exactly had a glowing history in the gaming medium. The most notable games in the franchise have been the Power Ranger games on the Super Nintendo/Sega Genises, and even those games were stock-standard beat-em-ups with no story and character models that were all recoloured versions of the red ranger- even the female ones!

In recent years, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Mega Battle was released and it was absolutely panned for  uninspired gameplay, and a bad Megazord sections. Fans of the series exist, but they're yet to get a game that is even decent, never mind good.

The Challenge

Power Rangers as a TV show is a franchise unlike any other. Every season since 1999 has seen a new iteration of the concept, only to be dumped after two seasons at most. As such, it's gone in and out not just with fans, but with production companies as well. It's ping-ponged between Saban and Disney, and is now in the hands of Hasbro. This means that, even though Mighty Morphin' is considered the quintessential series, it's been difficult to really pin down what a true Power Rangers experience needs. In many ways, Power Rangers is whatever it's showrunners need it to be. Translating all of that into one game will be difficult to say the least.

You know how it is- you show up to a party and everyone's wearing the
same outfit.

Another problem for me is that because of the program I'm using, Zord combat is going to be challenging. Sprites in RPG Maker can only get so big, so communicating the sheer size of the Zords is not going to be easy at all. I've thought of some possible solutions, but so far, none come close to doing what I  need them to do.

Fortunately, I have an idea. One that should be able to fix most of my problems. It all begins with story.

Story

It occurs to me that the rangers look like they're just about to
form a dance troupe.

It's been hundreds of years since anyone even uttered the word Power Rangers. When the Rotlings came to earth, the planets last team of rangers were unprepared. They fell quickly, and the Morphin' Grid- the source of their power, was broken.

In a future where apocalypse is reality, humanity struggles to survive. Forced to hide from the Rotlings, our species works tirelessly to secure, food, water and energy wherever it can be found.

This isn't enough for Eustace, though. An artist in a world of warriors, Eustace reads stories of a time when humanity didn't just survive, they thrived. They progressed. They lived. Desperate for anything that remains of a better time, he ventures into the forbidden city of Angel Grove. While there, he stumbles upon a cave, awakening an ancient being calling himself Zordon. Zordon offers him a solution to mankind's predicament: restore the Morphin' Grid, become the White Ranger and gather other rangers to help him save humanity from the Rotlings forever.

Gameplay

I first got the idea for this game while, oddly enough, playing a Pokémon fangame and watching the original Japanese version of Power Rangers, Super Sentai. MMPR, as I'm calling this project is a mixture of gameplay styles from the original Resident Evil games and Dynasty Warriors.

When you're unmorphed, you're vulnerable and unable to inflict
major damage.

You assemble a team of three or four rangers and spend time playing in both civilian and ranger form. In human form, your goal is to avoid being killed by the monsters that plague your world. Your fighting skills are enough to keep monsters away from you, but you cannot deal damage. In this form, however, your power bar gradually increases. When full, you can morph into your ranger form. In this form, you use simple combo attacks to deal damage to and kill enemies. Your time in this form, however, is limited as your power bar will start to decrease. You will turn back to human form when your power is spent. This should turn the game into a careful strategy of morphing at just the right time.

Now would be just the right time.

Missions will be based around going to different cities throughout the Power Rangers franchise and restoring the Morphin Grid. As you do so, you will unlock new suits for the seven (yes, seven) rangers. Each one will be based on one of the teams in the show's history (with some changes to colours to fit the colours of the characters) and will bring new movesets and stats to the characters.

You have NO idea how long it took to make this screenshot.

Bosses will also be based on popular monsters from a range of seasons (the psycho rangers from In Space are totally making an appearance), and will be the basis of each area's structure.

Now, I will admit. Currently, I have no plans to use the Zords. My in-story excuse is that the rangers simply do not have the Morphin' Grid power to make the Zords work, but they may yet appear as special attacks that can clear a large area.

As with all pitches, I'm not certain this game will ever come to fruition, but I've had the idea in my head for too long, now. At the end of the day, never say never, but I'm glad to get this idea out there.

Now over to you- is this an idea worth pursuing or should I never touch this franchise again with a ten-foot pole? What suits do you think should make it into the game? Let me know, I'm interested in feedback.

Secret Empire (Marvel) Review

Honestly, though? Most of theses
characters aren't in this book!

Writer: Nick Spencer

Artists: Andrea Sorrentino, Steve McNiven, Mark Brooks and Daniel Acuna

Background Information:

2017 was the year Marvel shot themselves in the foot more than barefooted man in a needle dump. Inhumans Vs X-Men was all about how evil the X-Men were for being gassed by the Inhumans- a claim that sounds a lot like blaming the twin towers for being in Al-Qaeda’s flight path. Various men over 38 complained that Thor was wearing lipstick and Captain America….

Oh, Captain America.

Review:

Captain America post Secret Wars was turned by Spencer into an agent of HYDRA. This pleased absolutely nobody. So-called “SJWs” hated the change because a character with a Jewish creator was now a Nazi and the “anti-SJW” community hated it because OF COURSE the straight, white, cis character was a Nazi because that’s what pop-culture does these days! That dedication to upsetting just about everyone continues in Secret Empire, which seems dedicated to driving away the last dregs of the Marvel fandom that still exists.

Remember how Marvel is supposed
to be the colourful one?

You know a book has a problem when the title bears no resemblance to what actually happens in  
 
the book. See, a secret is a fact or reality that is deliberately hidden from the public, whereas empire suggests a group of nations that is under the control of one larger, more powerful nation. Pay attention to that as we have a look at the plot of a book that is actually called Secret Empire:

The recently Hydrafied Captain America takes over the USA- and JUST the USA- and then makes everyone aware that Hydra is in charge by BLOWING UP WASHINGTON DC! So, Marvel, if this isn’t particularly secret and also not quite an empire, why are you calling it Secret Empire. Is it because you wanted to bank on the word “secret” that you’ve used in Secret War, Secret Warriors and Secret Invasion? Is it because the word “empire” sounds more like the kind of word used to describe the baddies than “kingdom” or “government”?

And how they had consistent art?

I mention this, because Secret Empire is a book that feels as though it’s more about PR than story. The book tries its best to put the focus on the new legacy characters- not because Marvel has any clue what to do with them (the characters do precious little in the story despite being given a huge chunk of page space), but so that Marvel can parade them around like so many Hollywood celebrities with Ugandan orphans. It’s more about how Marvel appears to the general public than where Marvel are going with the two years of monthly storytelling since Secret Wars.

I’ve heard rumblings amongst the community that Secret Wars is meant to be some scathing criticism of the Trump presidency. I for one am quite fond of Trump criticisms, but if Spencer wants this to be a Trump criticism, he’s absolutely failed at it. Before he got into power, Trump could be most charitably described as “not Hillary Clinton”. Captain America was considered to be an American hero by literally everyone. Furthermore, Cap is able-bodied, brave and intelligent! The only similarity between the two is the fact that they’re both terrible choices and there’s no way that’s enough for the metaphor to work!

And how that art was always interesting?

Nick Spencer isn’t by any means a bad writer. When he’s writing upbeat, humorous books such as his work with Ant-Man and The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, it’s pretty clear that he’s in his element. Secret Wars isn’t an upbeat book though, and Spencer seems to have no idea what to do with it. Most issues he starts out writing relatively dark dialogue which at worst is boring, but then something snaps in his head and he realises that if there isn’t a joke, he’ll likely develop a brain tumour. So he puts in the first joke that comes to his head, which is usually gaudy and instead of the issue just being boring, what we get is an issue that is painful.

If you don’t like to know the ending of books, stop reading now. I would call this a spoiler, but I get the feeling Spencer “spoiled” things enough since the beginning of the new Marvel NOW. One of the biggest kick to the teeth is the way that Secret Empire resolves itself. When HydraCap first started, Spencer insisted that this was the 100% real, cross-his-heart-hope-to-die Captain America. By the end of the book, however, we find out that HydraCap in fact isn’t the 100% real, cross-your-heart-hope-to-die Captain America and that the real version was inside the Cosmic Cube all along. Someone needs to tell Spencer that there is a difference between misdirection and flat out lying and that what he did was definitely the latter!

Actual footage of Nick Spencer in private.

I feel bad for criticising the artists here, because Andrea Sorrentino (who is one of my favourite comic artists currently in the industry) does at least a third of the art duties, but it honestly the worst Sorrentino art I’ve seen to date. Now, as I just said, Sorrentino is an excellent artist, but he’s an excellent artist when the writer knows what to do with him. When he’s working with Jeff Lemire, for example, you get a book that highlights just the right part of the action and it lends the book a kinetic, visceral energy the best example of which are in Lemire’s Green Arrow and Old Man Logan. In Secret Empire, there’s so little action in the issues that Sorrentino draws that we never get that feeling of primal brutality that makes him such an interesting artist.

The other problem is that this is an event book. Event books need big, colourful, artists who work with a sense of grand scale and that’s not Sorrentino’s wheelhouse. As such, the better art in this book comes from the other THREE ARTISTS. Each of these artists, though, have very different styles and as a result, nothing in this book feels like it belongs in the same story as anything around it, like a heroin dealer at a christening.

It’s been a long time since I’ve review a book this big and an even longer time since I spent this much time reviewing a book. But honestly, I keep finding things I hated and really nothing I liked outside of the artwork. It gets one out of five PR projects.