The Power Rangers just experienced a reboot in theaters this past weekend and shortly before that, we got a new mobile game. Power Rangers Legacy is sort of the “game based on the movie” release that we see in these instances. Sort of. While the new mobile game features the new characters, at least in their morphin’ suits, it is not exactly tied to the movie. We do get Elizabeth Banks in some screens in Power Rangers Legacy Wars so it is not all a loss.

Power Rangers Legacy Wars is similar to that new Transformers game coming out, by Kabam. While that giant robot game features a storyline focused on a rip in time and space, Power Rangers Legacy focuses on the Morphin’ Grid to get its many characters together in one place. The basis of Power Rangers Legacy Wars is that Rita Repulsa has somehow infiltrated the Morphin Grid and programmed clones of the various iterations of the Power Rangers to fight your team of rangers for control of the grid. The Morphin Grid is what gives the rangers their power to transform and do the stuff they do to thwart evil so this is a big deal.

Okay, now that the story is out of the way, let’s discuss the actual gameplay. Power Rangers Legacy Wars is not exactly a one-on-one fighting game. It is like the Capcom fighters that used tag partners where you had a main character and then pick one or two strikers. Power Rangers Legacy borrows that gameplay initiative and runs with it.

You are facing one opponent at a time, they have two strikers on their team as do you. The trick to playing Power Rangers Legacy Wars successfully is to forget 99% of what you know about fighting games. You are not in direct control, not even as much as we see in Mortal Kombat X or WWE Immortals. Touching the screen is only required in swipes left/right to get away from/run to your opponent and tapping the appropriate attack you would like to use.

With proper timing, you can mess up an opponent’s attack and counter with devastating results.

You are given three attacks at a time in the lower right side of the screen. Beside these icons is a timer counting. Like resource generation in games like , this number dictates what you can do and when. This counter maxes out at 10 points and I have not seen any way to make it bigger. Attacks cost points and if you have them available, you can string together more than one attack. As long as your opponent doesn’t block your onslaught, it will connect for major damage.

The icons are similar to the old “rock, paper, scissors” game. Red moves can beat blue moves, blue can beat yellow and yellow moves can devastate red ones. I have learned that the blue are the quickest to execute, then yellow with red moves taking the most time (and causing the most damage) to perform. Just like Street Fighter and its three levels of attack, the stronger the move, the longer it takes to time it out correctly. Nice bit of strategy there and one that surprised me.

While not exactly perfect, Power Rangers Legacy Wars is like the endless runner of fighting games, there is more than enough here to warrant playing. The amount of strategy here is interesting – it is mostly timing – as these battles are real time against real life opponents.

There are In App Purchases to watch out for. These are for power crystals (used to speed things up and power up characters), Power Coins (used in upgrading characters), Morph Boxes (mystery prizes) and even characters. You can grind to get all of these things so it is not like you HAVE to buy them. I have not experienced a pay-wall yet that stopped me cold from continuing so maybe they did this one right.

For fans of just about any iteration of the Power Rangers franchise will find something to like about Power Rangers Legacy Wars. I have characters spread across what seems like all teams that donned the colored suits and they all bring something unique to the battles.

GPD XD Specifics:
When playing with the GPD XD you can set physical controls to button presses/swipes to give Power Rangers Legacy Wars a more traditional fighting game feel.

Power Rangers Legacy Wars by nWay Inc
Platform: Android (ZTE ZMAX 2 and GPD XD used for review) and iPhone
Genre: Fighting
In App Purchases: Yes
Rated: T for Teen on Google Play and 12+ on iTunes
Available now on and the iTunes App Store