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History
Manley Toys Limited was founded in 1987. The company’s line of business includes the wholesale distribution of games, toys, hobby goods, and supplies. One of its divisions, ToyQuest, acquired the rights to produce Power Rangers toys from BVS Entertainment, Inc. Over the years ToyQuest released a number of Power Rangers-themed toys, including several standalone “VR” video games. Rather than continuing to release multiple separate plug-and-play devices, ToyQuest decided to create a cartridge-based video game console centred on the Power Rangers franchise.
Release
Released in 2003, the console came bundled with one game and a set of motion controllers. The pack-in title was a fighting game simply called Power Rangers Ninja Storm. The controllers attached to the player’s hands and feet with a series of wires and connected to a central controller box, which in turn plugged into the console. The controller box translated the player’s movements and sent the data to the system via a game-pad port. The console has only one controller port, indicating that it was designed primarily for single-player games (although, as with the included motion controllers, the company could theoretically have released multiplayer titles that used multiple controllers daisy-chained into a single port).
The hardware itself is relatively simple. Instead of an AC adapter, the console runs on four AA batteries. It features a small power button on the side and larger reset and pause buttons located at the bottom of each side of the unit.
Demise
The console never gained significant traction and was quickly replaced the following year by a plug-and-play system called the Thunder Action Video Gaming System (2004), also from ToyQuest. Two additional games had been planned for the cartridge-based system—Storm Striker and Ninja Thunder Blaster—but these do not appear to have been released as standalone cartridges. Instead, the content was incorporated into the 2004 plug-and-play unit. That later system is physically very similar to the Storm Action T.V. Gaming System but does not support cartridges; it contains two built-in games that use accessories similar to those planned for the earlier cartridge-based console.
Games
Although a total of 3 games were planned for this release, we suspect that only the pack-in game exist.
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| Power Rangers Ninja Storm 2003 |
Storm Striker (Unreleased) |
Ninja Thunder Blaster (Unreleased) |
Gameplay