Introduction

I must say that I had a tough time writing this review. I wanted
to like Light Rangers as much as I’ve liked the six other games from
Digital Praise that I’ve reviewed. But I just couldn’t do that and
be true to my feelings which, at best, are mixed.

The biggest similarity between Light
Rangers and those other games
is its foundation in Christian values. This time out, references
to Christianity and the Bible are more direct, obvious, and plentiful.
The importance of humility, patience, selflessness, obedience and
wisdom is emphasized. The game is rated for ages 6 and older.

While all of those other games were developed and published by Digital
Praise, however, Light Rangers was developed by Brethren Entertainment
and only published by Digital Praise. The tone of this game has a
distinct edge that’s absent in the others, although whether this
is related to the fact that its developer is a company other than
Digital Praise, I can’t say. The game does have its good points,
but I found some of its other aspects to be more than a little off-putting.

Story

The city of Angeltown has been invaded by a quartet of nefarious
nasties who, under the direction of Maniac Brainiac, are exerting
their evil influence over the town’s children. Playing as one of
three Light Rangers, your task is to defeat the villains and restore
the town’s harmony by completing five arcade-style games-within-the-game.

I have no particular problem
with the story per se, although I do take exception to some of
the Light Rangers’ behavior in the situations
it offers (see Characters). The story rates a “B.”

Graphics and Sound

Light Rangers is presented
in the style of Japanese anime. Consequently, the game features
characters with big eyes, exaggerated hair, extreme
facial expressions, overstated actions, etc. (Interestingly, the
Lead Design Artist is billed in the game’s manual as “Psycho
Ann.”) Graphics and animation are quite colorful and nicely
rendered.

A wide choice of background
music is offered. While each selection tends to be a bit repetitious
and no “turn off music” option
is offered, players can change tunes at any time from within the
game. Voice acting and sound effects are appropriate, although some
of the dialog is also a little repetitious. For instance, one of
the villains repeats, “Take that! Ha-ha-ha!” continuously
throughout the entire arcade game level in which he appears.

Graphics and sound earn
an “A-.”

Characters

The Light Rangers are
actually three ordinary nine-year-olds named A.J., Amos, and Angel
who have been “transformed by the power
of God’s word” to do battle with the game’s villains. They are
assisted in their quest to clean up Angeltown by Sunday school teacher/computer
scientist Dr. Goodman, whose secret lab in the basement of the town’s
church serves as Light Ranger headquarters. Also on hand is a robot
named Crash, apparently tinkered together by Amos.

The evildoers consist of Dr. Nono, Mimi Me (accompanied by her little
sister Me Two), Fast Forward, Vanna Vanity, and the aforementioned
Maniac Brainiac. Each of these villains is featured in one of the
five arcade games. With the exception of Mimi Me and her sister,
all seem older than the Light Rangers. Some appear to be adults.

Our villains are assisted
in their dastardly deeds by the likes of the “Noma” Virus, Scare Bears (my favorites; they float
around saying “Boo!” while spitting energy-zappers), Zoom
Bots, Sour Notes, Double-Trouble Bubbles, and Fruits of the Doom.

The levels in which the Scare Bears appear also feature Teddy Bears
that have been taken captive. As each one is released, it does a
little dance. That’s a cute touch.

Neither heroes nor villains
are described to any extent within the game, but descriptions of
all characters are reflected on the game’s
official website. Also
offered is some backstory involving Maniac Brainiac and Dr. Goodman.

According to the site, each Light Ranger has a unique spiritual
gift. These don’t come into play within the game, however, where
the three heroes’ capabilities are identical. The choice of which
character to use in each arcade game is strictly a matter of personal
preference, with one exception. The game that takes place in West
Angeltown must be played as Crash.

Our three heroes also have distinctly different personality traits.
Again, these are mentioned on the Light Rangers site but not in the
game, although they do come into play there. This is where I hit
a big snag with the character Angel.

Regrettably, some of Angel’s in-game behavior just doesn’t sit right
with me. Although knowledge of her characteristics accounts for some
of it, I question the kind of example her actions might be setting
for kids, particularly if they haven’t explored the Light Rangers
site before playing the game (and even if they have).

You see, Angel loves animals. (In the interest of full disclosure
so do I, and I do have a cat. But I don’t consider myself — nor
am I perceived to be — an animal fanatic.) Unfortunately, Angel
is rather rough with them because she’s overenthusiastic and doesn’t
know her own strength. For instance, in the game’s opening cutscene,
a cat sees Angel and reacts with obvious alarm. Angel then accosts
the animal and squeezes it way too forcefully, as evinced by the
cat’s frazzled expression.

Further, in a still graphic that’s displayed between game segments,
Angel is clutching a cat so tightly that its eyes are popping out.
A similar image appears during the North Angeltown arcade game, on
a billboard that also quotes Scripture. In both images, Angel is
winking at the player.

The Light Rangers site
even reflects the following at the end of its section on Angel: “Editors note: no animals were harmed
in the creation of this video game.” Maybe this is meant to
be funny. But for me, in view of Angel’s behavior, it falls flat.

Disturbingly, Angel wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.
Hopefully, she’ll have more control over herself by then.

I also find Angel’s behavior questionable in a subsequent cutscene.
During an altercation with one of the villains, she does something
rather dreadful to that character’s hair. Then everyone laughs about
it.

I was later told that the hair in question is really a wig. This
hadn’t been clear to me from the cutscene, but even if it had, I
would have found the scene to be no less a jaw-dropper. This is the
sort of behavior I expect from bad guys, not good guys.

Ironically, the Light Rangers site reflects Angel’s spiritual gift
as compassion. I feel it’s ironic that her name is Angel.

The above depictions concerned me enough to ask Digital Praise/Brethren
Entertainment about them. I got some input from Light Rangers creator
Scott Wong, who clued me in about the aforementioned wig. He also
told me that the cat scenes are meant to show Angel’s exaggerated
excitement and inability to keep her strength in check, which are
common aspects of anime and are supposed to be funny.

Not knowing a whole lot about anime going into the game, I decided
to read up on it. I still don’t think the cat scenes are funny, and
I question whether a style in which these kinds of actions are typical
is even appropriate for a game based on Christian principles — particularly
one for kids.

In the scene with the hair/wig, the villain in question calls Angel
a loser for quoting Scripture during their skirmish, and accuses
Angel of being jealous. Angel’s actions are, at least in part, retaliatory.
The scene is also meant to depict Angel teaching the other character
a lesson regarding the futility of vanity. To me, it seems more mean-spirited
than anything else. I don’t feel it’s a very good representation
of Christian values put into practice. To my way of thinking, involvement
in a righteous cause doesn’t give one license to do or say whatever
one wants in the advancement of that cause.

Lastly, it’s my opinion that all three Light Rangers come across
as just a tad too self-righteous. I also found their attitudes when
dealing with villains to be somewhat abrasive. This could be a turn-off
for some folks. Personally, I don’t care for the idea of nine-year-olds
practically lecturing adults and other children. I prefer a gentler,
more subtle approach.

Based on all of the above
but largely on Angel’s behavior, I give the game’s characters a “C-.”

Navigation

The following pertains to the Windows version of the game, which
I played on WinXP Home SP2.

Both mouse and keyboard come into play in Light
Rangers. A mouse
is used to interact with various interfaces, and the arcade games
are keyboard-controlled.

The game employs a device called an EPAD, which offers a choice
of two key configurations — one centering on the standard ASWD setup,
the other using arrow keys. There is no option for player-defined
hot keys. The EPAD also allows players to return to headquarters
and regroup, replenish energy, select background music, and control
volume.

A User’s Manual is included on the Light
Rangers disk. Although
a link to it is provided in the game’s initial splash-screen menu,
the manual is not accessible once gameplay has started. Consequently,
in order to refer to the manual while in the middle of an arcade
game one must exit Light Rangers completely, which also results in
the loss of all progress made in that particular game. Further, the
splash screen menu is not displayed if the game is entered through
its link in the Start Menu. It only appears if the game is entered
via autoplay, or through the CD-ROM drive via My Computer. This is
not mentioned in the Manual.

The game’s main menu differs
considerably in overall appearance from the one pictured in the
User’s Manual. Further, although reference
is made in the manual to an “Options” button on the main
menu, no such button appears on that menu within the game. While
this wasn’t a huge deal to me, it does have the potential to be confusing.
When I asked about it, I was told that the manual does reflect an
older main menu screen, but that the names of the buttons are the
same. They aren’t.

The fifth and final arcade
game is not addressed in the User’s Manual (I located info about
it on the Digital Praise website). I was told
that this is a “secret bonus level” and that Brethren Entertainment
didn’t want to spoil the surprise by adding it to the manual. To
me it was just the final arcade game, without which the story would
have had no resolution. I’m not sure why it would be considered either “secret” or “bonus.”

Further, the fact that there are five arcade games is mentioned
on the Light Rangers packaging and on its official website. Moreover,
even before the fifth game is played, a slot for it is reflected
in the Cinema area, from which cutscenes are accessed. Consequently,
an observant player would know that a fifth game exists, but would
be unable to find information about it without searching outside
both the game and its manual.

Navigation garners a “C-.”

Gameplay

The arcade games featured in Light
Rangers are of the typical top-down
and side-scrolling varieties. Each has several levels, culminating
in a Boss Level. The mechanics of these games are simple enough that
players should seldom, if ever, get stuck.

One of the games changes from day to night and back again, which
I think is a nice touch. On the other hand, one of the Boss Levels
features a rather arcane scoring method that isn’t addressed in the
User’s Manual. I never quite figured it out.

The arcade games come in three difficulty levels. I tried them all
and feel that the range they represent is appropriate for the game’s
target audience.

Light Rangers can accommodate up to five players via a players list.
When the list is full, a name must be deleted before another one
can be added.

Players start each arcade
game with three “lives.” When
energy is running low, it’s replenished by answering multiple-choice
questions about the Bible. If this isn’t done in time, the player
loses a life. Lose all three, and you’re transported back to headquarters
where you can access that particular game again and give it another
shot. Players have infinite chances to complete each game, and at
no time do any of the characters “die.”

The only way I could discover to pause the game’s action was to
activate the EPAD. However, if the timer is in use (see Special
Features),
it will continue to run when the EPAD is open. This is not covered
in the User’s Manual.

Unfortunately, Light
Rangers permits no saves other than those performed
automatically at the end of each arcade sequence. As previously mentioned,
if a player has to leave the game while in the middle of a particular
arcade activity, all progress is lost.

Players needing to brush up on their knowledge of the Bible may
do so through the game’s Library/Training Center, where they can
practice answering questions. This screen also offers the options
of changing the background music, and turning the music and sound
effects on and off using check boxes (these choices pertain only
to this particular area, not the entire game). For me, though, clearing
the check boxes only locked the current background music in place.
I was never able to turn anything off.

Each of the arcade games in Light
Rangers includes a bonus for collecting
all of one or more types of coins. This is reflected in the User’s
Manual, but not within the game. Also, there’s no indication of the
total number of coins available within a given game (some coins aren’t
readily visible and their numbers vary). So players can’t tell if
they’ve been successful until all levels have been completed and
a final score is displayed.

One of the games also offers a bonus for each level completed within
a certain amount of time. Again, this is mentioned only in the User’s
Manual and not within the game itself. Further, elapsed time is not
displayed on-screen during this particular game, so players are unable
to tell how they’re doing. As with the coin bonus, success is indicated
on the score screen only after all levels have been completed.

Throughout the activities, players are offered various types of
in-game power-ups, each with a specific duration. Not all power-ups
appear in every arcade game, and the use of each differs from one
game to the next. The User’s Manual does address game-specific usage,
but the purpose of one of the power-ups featured in all five games
is only described for one of them.

Power-ups aren’t cumulative, nor can they be stored. Picking one
up will cancel one that’s already running, even though there may
be time left on it.

Only some of the power-ups come with an on-screen display of elapsed
time. Players have no way to judge the duration of the others.

I did discover — quite by accident — that at some levels, power-ups
need not be picked up right away. But in most cases, if they aren’t,
players must remember where they are and accessing them may involve
considerable backtracking. At other levels, power-ups are one-time
shots. Those that become available must be picked up and used immediately
or they’re lost.

One of the power-ups consists of a shield which operates on its
own energy. Players also have access to a second type of shield via
the keyboard. Although this is, indeed, mentioned in the User’s Manual,
its distinction from the shield power-up isn’t made clear. The second
shield may be used at any time, but when activated, it draws on the
player’s energy and depletes it incredibly quickly. Very close attention
must be paid to its use.

Unless otherwise noted, the User’s Manual offers none of the information
I’ve just recounted concerning bonuses and power-ups. I discovered
all of it during gameplay.

Players can also purchase power-up and gadget enhancements using
Cross Coins collected during the arcade games. These purchases are
possible only between games.

A High Scores screen is supposed to track players’ progress and
offer opportunities to collect bonus items using a special code (see
Extras). Unfortunately, I have yet to make sense of the information
displayed in the five available high-score slots.

I first accessed the screen after I’d played Light
Rangers from
beginning to end several times. It reflected my name followed by
the same score in all five slots.

Brethren Entertainment addressed this for me, but what they said
didn’t mesh with what I was seeing. I was told that by default, temporary
names and scores are already entered on the screen. These did not
appear for me. They went on to say that in order to be ranked on
the High Scores screen, one must complete all five levels of the
game. As already mentioned, I’d done that several times.

I then tried completing the game a few more times using a second
name. This made no difference on the High Scores screen.

I added a third name, and went on to complete the game additional
times under all three names. When I last checked, my first screen
name was still reflected five times, along with five identical scores.
This was the case no matter which name I used to enter the game.
The High Scores screen continues to baffle me.

I encountered several
glitches during gameplay in the form of script errors. Also, at
one point the energy-replenishment screen malfunctioned
and left me with a non sequitur Bible question and no choice of answers.
On another occasion, as I was leaving a cutscene, Windows abruptly
crashed and my computer shut down.

Gameplay rates a “C-.”

Special Features

Light Rangers offers a couple of tools for parents: the Question
Editor and the Egg Timer. I had problems with both of them.

The game comes with an assortment of 200 multiple-choice Bible questions
that players must answer throughout the game in order to gain energy.
The Question Editor allows parents to add their own topics and questions
to the database without restriction as to subject matter. At first,
I thought this was a great idea.

What
is not explained, however, is that in order to have such questions
appear with any continuity, a full 200 of them must be added.
Brethren Entertainment gave me this information directly when I asked
about it. Adding less than 200 questions will result in the game
adding questions from the default set until the number reaches 200.
In that case, questions added through the Editor will be intermixed
with default questions, because the display of questions is randomized.
None of the default questions may be deleted from the database.

The User’s Manual does state that additional questions can be downloaded
from the Light Rangers site. I looked high and low for these, but
came up empty. I then found out from Brethren Entertainment that
no extra questions are currently available. They hope to have some
ready soon.

According to the User’s
Manual, the Egg Timer “enables parents
to control the amount of time that a child is allowed to play the
game on a given day,” which is a little misleading (more about
that shortly). Its use requires a password.

The User’s Manual provides a default password which can subsequently
be changed. However, this password will continue to work even if
a new one is created. This means that any player who knows the default
password — the discovery of which only involves looking in the Manual
— will always be able to override time limits and thereby defeat
the purpose of the timer.

I had a lot of difficulty with the password field. Entering characters
in it proved to be quite tricky. At times, trying to add a single
letter resulted in repeats; in order to avoid this, I had to tap
the key very, very lightly. At other times, a character couldn’t
be entered unless I hit the key forcefully several times (which would
sometimes also trigger repeats). This contrariness appeared to be
arbitrary; it didn’t always happen with the same keys.

I also discovered (again,
by accident) that keys other than letter and number keys will enter
characters in the password field. Even
the “print screen” key I pressed while making a screenshot
entered something there.

Passwords are encoded
as asterisks, so I was unable to tell at any time if the characters
I intended to enter had actually been entered.
Only after a considerable amount of time and effort — not to mention
a lot of “invalid password” messages — was I finally able
to gain access to the timer.

Another thing the User’s Manual doesn’t mention is that passwords
are case-sensitive. This only adds to the hassle of entering the
default password. Three of its letters are capitalized.

Time is controlled in 15-minute increments up to a maximum of two
hours. (Note: a sample graphic in the User’s Manual reflects a 10-minute
setting, which is not possible within the game.) When I was finally
able to try the timer, I had already completed the game several times
using two different names. I set the timer for 15 minutes and entered
the game under one of the names.

A “Time’s Up” screen
did, indeed, pop up after 15 minutes. It said that either a correct
password would have to be entered in
order to extend my time, or I’d have to leave the game. I opted to
leave.

I found myself back at
the Control Tower, which is the area from which the arcade games
are accessed. I was actually able to re-enter
the game, but after maybe 15 seconds, another “Time’s Up” screen
appeared. After again landing in the Control Tower, I went back to
the main menu. That’s when I discovered that, contrary to what’s
stated in the User’s Manual, the imposition of a time restriction
apparently applies to all players.

At that point, I was unable
to re-enter the game under any name. The screen on which one chooses
a name is accessible only after the
game has been entered through the main menu’s “Play” button.
With a time restriction in place, clicking “Play” only
results in a pop-up message saying that “Access has been restricted
by Parental Egg Timer.”

The only alternative I could see to this quandary was to eliminate
the time restriction altogether. For parents, this would mean allowing
access to someone they want to restrict in order to let other players
into the game.

Also, if the timer kicks
in during one of the arcade games (and chances are likely that
it will), all progress in that game is lost
unless the player gets back to it immediately — and I mean don’t
go anywhere, do anything, or even move — by having someone enter
a valid password on the “Time’s Up” screen. (Once a player
is timed out and opts to leave an arcade game in progress, even if
he or she is permitted to re-enter it right away, that player starts
back at square one.) This is another unfortunate consequence of the
absence of player-initiated saves.

In view of the fact that some of the arcade games can be rather
lengthy, a player who is limited to 15 minutes (or even 30 minutes
or longer for younger players) might never be able to complete the
game. This doesn’t seem quite fair to me.

Both the Question Editor
and Egg Timer are innovative features that I feel would be welcomed
by parents if they were put together differently.
Due to the many snags I hit in using them, these two features get
a “C-.”

Extras

Once cutscenes are viewed
within the game, they can be viewed again at any time. This kind
of feature has always appealed to me. However, after
in-game
cutscenes are viewed for the first time in Light Rangers, they no longer
appear for that particular player if the game is replayed. Instead,
one level leads
directly into the next without transition. This strikes me as being a little
peculiar.

Also, players can use
the aforementioned Cross Coins collected during arcade games to
purchase desktop wallpaper and pages to print out
and color. Within the game, the wallpaper screen is described by
Extras tour guide Amos as having not only wallpaper, “but other
fun stuff, too.” I saw nothing but wallpaper there.

As touched on previously,
the High Scores screen reflects a code in each score slot. In my
case, the code in every slot consisted
invariably of 14 zeros, which seemed a little strange to me. The
screen states “Use your WEB CODE on our website to unlock bonus
items,” and provides a link to the Brethren Entertainment site,
which I dutifully followed. But I was unable to locate any bonus
items there.

In contrast, the User’s Manual says to use these codes on the official
Light Rangers site. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any bonus items there,
either.

I was subsequently told by Brethren Entertainment that creation
of bonus items is still in progress. They hope to have some available
soon.

I give the Extras a “C-.”

Conclusion

I tried to get a better feel for Light
Rangers by asking lots of
questions, but the answers I received — particularly concerning
the game’s content — evoked more consternation than anything else.
Although the game is cartoonish, this doesn’t necessarily preclude
it from being taken seriously by kids. Cartoons can have a negative
impact — just look at the stink that was raised over South Park.

I also played Light
Rangers from start to finish more times than I’ve played any other game
I’ve reviewed, thinking that maybe I just
wasn’t “getting” it (after all, I’m not a kid). But doing
so only resulted in the discovery of more incongruent aspects. Try
as I might, I was simply unable to get okay with some parts of the
game.

I’m told by Brethren Entertainment that time constraints prohibited
the inclusion of different attributes that would have made one Light
Ranger better suited than the others for a particular arcade game.
I suppose — although it hasn’t been confirmed — that this could
also account for the glitches I encountered, the lack of extra questions
and bonus items on the associated websites, the problems with the
special features, and the less-than-helpful User’s Manual.

The absence of promised bonus items could be quite a disappointment
for younger players, and troubles with special features and the inability
to find pertinent information in the User’s Manual could result in
frustration for parents. I really wish Brethren Entertainment could
have devoted more time to developing this game, ironing out its problems,
and completing the Light Rangers site.

The game’s ending provides a setup for a possible sequel, and the
User’s Manual does make reference to a Light Rangers series of video
games. If a sequel is in the offing, it’s my hope that it will reflect
more polish, continuity, attention to detail, and desirable behavior
than is reflected in this one. It would also help if associated items,
such as those appearing on websites, could be in place before the
game is released.

Light Rangers could have been a wonderful game
for kids. As I’ve said, it does have some good points. Unfortunately
— and I truly wish this were otherwise
— I feel they’re overshadowed by its flaws.

Final Grade: C-
(find out more about our
grading system)

System Requirements:

Windows

• Windows® XP/ME/2000/98SE
• Pentium® III 533 MHz with MMX
• 350 MB hard disk space
• 128 MB RAM
• DirectX® v9.0
• DirectSound® compatible sound card
• 8 MB VGA compatible
  video card
• Standard CD-ROM/keyboard/mouse

MAC

• Power MacIntosh G3
• OSX 10.1.5
• 350 MB hard disk space
• 128 MB RAM
• Standard CD-ROM/keyboard/mouse