[ljacone]

MMPR and MMPR:TM for Game Gear are both excellent. I still play them to this day. They are fast-paced Fighters from Banpresto. The controls are tight and easy to learn, using the 2 buttons of the Game Gear very well. Both have unique special moves for each character, bright graphics, and good 8 bit sound adapting music from the show.

Each has their strengths and weaknesses. MMPR has a better and bigger cast, including all 6 Rangers, Megazord, Dragonzord, Dragonzord Fighting Mode, Goldar, the Putty Patrol, King Sphinx, Nasty Knight, Shellshock, Polluticorn, and Cyclopsis. The story mode follows the general layout of the monster's episode -- IE, if Goldar was in the Ranger battle with the monster, you'll fight him as a sub boss in one or both rounds of a stage. It also has two stages devoted to Green With Evil. In the first stage you fight Evil Tommy and then GIANT EVIL TOMMY like on the show. The second stage starts with fighting the Dragonzord and then fighting Evil Tommy, again like the show. After that stage, Tommy becomes available as does the Dragonzord variants.

MMPR:TM's big improvement is a Super meter and a Super move for each character in addition to their three special moves. Also, the life bars are now clearly segmented, so you can see how many units of health you have left. The cast, however, is smaller, with only 15 characters -- the 6 Rangers (White replacing Green of course), Thundermegazord, Ninja Megafalconzord, Goldar, Z-Putty Patrol, Beamcaster, Jaws of Destruction, Ooze Men, Hornitron, and the Ivan-Ectomorph. The story mode cutscenes for the Lord Zedd stages are lame, with the same dialogue reused each time. But the movie cutscenes are much better. White Ranger's sprite has Saba with him constantly, so most of his punches are actually sabre-slashes, which is neat. The Super Moves are great, as a general rule. The two Megazords' Super Moves are their finishers from the show, for example.

Both games are really strong, overall.

More later...