Behold Studios, the people behind the Kickstarter-funded game, Chroma Squad, just recently posted a video announcing the release date of the game. Following their recent dispute with the producers and attorneys of Saban, the company who owns the rights of the Power Rangers franchise, the two parties have settled on an agreement and the game will now be released on April 30 under the name “Chroma Squad: Tactical RPG inspired by SABAN’s Power Rangers”.
Chroma Squad is a tactical turn-based manager game in which players are given an indie sentai TV studio and are tasked to produce episodes starring a group of heroes in colorful costumes, known to fans as Power Rangers or Super Sentai. The goal is to get as many viewers in an episode by fighting mooks and boss monsters and giant boss monsters with the help of a giant robot. Upgrades are done by purchasing studio equipment and individual costumes for the heroes. Chroma Squad has a very comedic tone with a bunch of references that fans of the genre will surely get.
Recalling the issue that transpired, the Chroma Squad dev team had been contacted by Saban and offered them a deal to let them join the project and get a royalty share or, with the power of the court, stop the game from being released to the public. Saban deemed that the game was too similar to the Power Rangers franchise. As made clear by the dev team in their post, made available only to backers of the game, they made the game as a parody and it was never intended to infringe any copyright. They also added that the game is obviously a nod to the larger franchise, Super Sentai, and also to the other franchises in the tokusatsu genre that originated in Japan such as Kamen Rider and Godzilla.
Fans of Chroma Squad, Power Rangers fans and Super Sentai fans alike, are still eager to play the game despite the delay that happened. Even the devs made subtle jokes on the delay as seen on their release trailer.
Feature image credits: Chroma Squad website