VR Troopers

VR Troopers is a 1995 fighting game based on the American syndicated television series VR Troopers that itself used elements from several different Japanese tokusatsu shows from the Metal Hero Series. It was developed by Syrox Developments and published by Sega. The game was released on the Sega Genesis and the Sega Game Gear.

VR Troopers is a syndicated live-action superhero–adventure television series produced and distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1994 to 1996. The show tried to profit from the fascination with virtual reality in the mid-1990s as well as the success of Saban’s other property, Power Rangers.^[1]VR Troopers was the first official “sister series” to Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Much like it, this was an Americanization of a Japanese tokusatsu children’s program series by Toei Company. The series is a co-production of Toei and Cyberprod.

Plot – VR Troopers

Antagonist Grimlord sends an arcade game to Tao’s Dojo which ends up sucking protagonists Ryan Steele, J.B. Reese, and Kaitlin Star into Virtual Reality. To escape, they embark on a mission to defeat Grimlord’s Skugs and monsters.

Gameplay – VR Troopers

Genesis version – VR Troopers

The player has three modes to choose from. Story Game, Vs. Battle, and CPU duel. Story Game is a mode where the player can choose from any one of the three VR Troopers to face off against the evil leader Grimlord’s mutants and cyborgs and eventually Grimlord. Vs. Battle is a two-player mode where a player and a friend can face off against each other. CPU duel is a simple fight between the player and an opponent controlled by the computer. The player can choose their fighter, and what stage they want to fight on. If the player chooses a fighter and the opponent is the same fighter, the opponents character gets re-skinned a different color.

Game Gear version – VR Troopers

The player has two modes to choose from. Story Game and Battle Game. Story Game is a mode where the player can choose from any one of the three VR Troopers to face off against the evil leader Grimlord’s mutants and cyborgs. Battle Game is a ladder-type fighting game mode where the player can choose from eight different characters^[4] to beat a certain number of enemies and win the game. The player must face a ninth character original to the game called Kamelion who can shape-shift to any other character.^[5]

Reception – VR Troopers

Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it one star out of five, and stated that “this game is exceptionally generic with some real simplistic fighting (good for kids, though) and nothing that makes it worth owning unless you’re a huge fan of the show.”^[6]

Mean Machines Sega #40 reviewed the game and gave it a rating of 45, in particular criticizing its lack of fresh ideas.^[7]