Did you happen to have childhood memories watching Power Rangers as a kid? Do you happen to love the super sentai series it was inspired from? What if you could create your own Power Rangers squad, manage their look and gear, and direct awesome episodes involving team-up attacks, needless backflips and mecha battles? That oddly specific need of yours maybe fulfilled with Chroma Squad.
Brazilian developers Behold Studios made this game last year via Kickstarter, and managed to release it-despite some legal battles from Saban who owns the Power Rangers licence but not the whole super sentai series from Japan the game takes more inspiration for.
Chroma Squad is half-management sim, half tactical RPG/strategy. You need to buy equipment to improve your studio and overall quality of an episode, ensure fans keep on growing and select marketing plans and outfit your selected roster of teenagers with attitude that can be not teenagers, or even not human at all. Then, there’s the part of the show where you control the battlefield like a tactical RPG/strategy game like Fire Emblem and XCOM, dealing with goons, finishing objectives related to the plot of the episode and putting a good performance for the fans.
If those two things seems contradictory, then good eye, as Chroma Squad is all about the silly 4th-wall breaking jokes that deludes the line between keyfabe and real. Depending on your taste, this could all be rather hillarious or just plain meh. Aside of that, charming pixel art and chiptune soundtrack will accompany the journey of whatever you name your line of super sentai is.
As mentioned, this indie title has ben around for a while, but with the help of publishers Bandai Namco, Chroma Squad will see a release on PS4, Xbox One, PS Vita, iOS and Android. Fitting that a Japanese publisher is picking this one up for release.
Here’s the silly announcement trailer, with a Japanese theme song, filled with Engrish and campy live action. GO GO RETSU GO!
Chroma Squad is set to release sometime in 2017. Though no word if it will arrive in Asia as well just yet, which may be problematic since the Steam version is not available for sale in Malaysia, among various other region due to legal issues. There’s always the Humble Store if you want to get it for PC.