Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Is a Faithful Ode
I've always felt there was a certain kinship between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers . Both properties follow unconventional teams of teenaged superheroes who battle weird monsters using their fighting skills, cool weapons, and distinctive vehicles. The roots of both lay earlier than their most popular forms, and both have seen numerous follow-ups and reboots that despite their success haven't managed to bottle lightning in quite the same way. Perhaps most importantly for our purposes today, both are also perfectly suited for video game adaptations.
This is also a point of divergence, however. Where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are practically woven into the fabric of video gaming history due to Konami's outstanding and wildly successful run of games in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Power Rangers have never been able to fully shake off that "licensed game" feeling. It would be easy to explain if all of the games based on the IP were of dubious quality, but there have been a number of good games featuring the multicolored martial artists. For whatever reason, none of them have had the right combination of elements to hit it truly big.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Enter Digital Eclipse and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind . Following in the footsteps of other successful beat 'em up revivals like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and Streets of Rage 4 , this game sees the original teenagers with attitude taking on a threat from the future. Coming off her villainous turn in 2023's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always , Robo-Rita has decided that two Ritas are better than one for conquering Earth. She transports herself back in time to 1993 to team up with her younger self and take down the original teenagers with attitude while they're still young and inexperienced. Zordon doesn't miss a bit and has Alpha press the team into action immediately in order to put a stop to this time-bending crisis.
What follows is a few hours of Putty-pummeling, Goldar-grinding, Bulk-bragging action. Everything has been put together here with an eye to pleasing fans of the earlier episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , with every big boss being pulled from those foundational tales. You'll travel through many familiar locations, and the Putties are always dressed for the occasion. You can even hit up the Juice Bar between episodes and listen to Bulk go off about how he was the one who actually saved the day. While not quite up to the sheer excesses of Shredder's Revenge , I think fans are going to be pleased with how the Rangers and their world are represented.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Revenge is so dedicated to making sure all the core elements of the series get their proper due that it takes some very odd swings at times for a co-op brawler. Is it really Power Rangers if the Megazord doesn't awkwardly knock around the monster of the week for a bit before using its Power Sword to finish the job? For better or worse, you're going to get the full Power Rangers experience here. That means that in addition to the standard belt-scrolling punch-ups, there are a few other kinds of stages you'll have to deal with. Two of them play like variants on SEGA's popular Super Scaler games, with one putting you on the back of a motorbike and the other in the cockpit of your very own Zord.
These stages offer a pinch of Space Harrier and a touch of Hang-On , with a few moments of clumsy platforming for the land-bound Zords. Destroying certain objects and enemies will give you some temporary power-ups, but the general rule here is to just keep blasting everything. Avoid attacks where possible, and be very careful not to fall down a pit as it's an instant life lost if you do. While a nice change of pace and a good nod to an aspect of the Power Rangers that tends to get forgotten, these stages run on a bit longer than I feel would be ideal. They're also very repetitive, following the same broad structure each time they appear.
Screenshot by Siliconera
The other oddball gameplay type comes when the Rangers form the Megazord to battle a giant opponent. It plays out a little like a first-person take on Punch-Out!! , with you having to dodge enemy attacks and counter with punches of your own. Your aim here is to fill up the meter charging your Power Sword. Landing hits will fill it, while taking hits will drain it. There are three levels to charge up, and even if you get boxed around a fair bit you can only drop down to the bottom of your current level in the gauge. Once you fill it up, the Power Sword will drop and you can use it to deliver the final button-mashing blow. Very cool stuff, even if it comes off more methodical than I'd prefer by the end.
I think there are two ways to look at these alternate stage types. If we look at Rita's Rewind as a beat 'em up, I think these stages take too long to complete and are too repetitive to work as a palate cleanser for the brawling action. This game loves its phases, and going through the same time-consuming routine with each Megazord boss fight loses its luster after a while. The Super Scaler-style stages are more varied, but they too recycle certain phase-based sequences too often. The worst is if you happen to run out of lives near the end of one of these stages, since continues send you back to the start. This is less of a problem in multiplayer than it is in solo play, but it can be very disheartening.
Screenshot by Siliconera
If we set aside the beat 'em up mindset however, and just look at this as a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers game? These stages seem practically essential to the experience. Sure, we don't see many episodes where the robot T-Rex sprints and hops its way through canyons, blasting everything in its path. But these sections, along with the motorbike bits, are very cool in that Power Rangers way. The Megazord fights might be formulaic to a fault, but how could you possibly dislike boxing a giant monster's face while the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme song plays in the background? How can you not be hyped to see the Megazord do his familiar clunky sword retrieval and then use it to blast away the boss? It's utterly Power Rangers . It has to be here.
Let's talk about the beat 'em up mechanics, as you'll spend the bulk of the game playing the brawler stages. You have a melee attack that goes into a combo, and the last hit generally hits behind you as well as in front. You can do an aerial attack, and you had best practice that because you are going to need it. There's a jump kick, a ground pound, and a dash attack. You can perform a backflip that works as a dodge, and you can pose. Posing gives you a little bit of energy for your super gauge, which otherwise simply fills up as you fight. Grabbing Power Coins from smashed objects will also help build your meter. Once it's full, you can call on your Zord for a screen-wide super attack. Aside from Power Coins, you can also pick up health-restoring food and some collectibles by smashing everything. So, you know. Do that.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Apart from light cosmetic differences, all the Rangers have the same set of moves. I can't be fully sure, but I think there might be some mild differences in their speed and power. This is one aspect of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind that disappointed me. The move set is adequate even if it isn't anywhere near the better games in the genre, but the fact that there is so little variability between characters is unfortunate. The characters all have their own style in the show, and that would have been really cool to see expressed here. One of the things that makes games like Shredder's Revenge or Streets of Rage 4 so fun to replay is in how each character feels distinct from the others. In this game, even the unlockable character plays more or less like the rest.
Still, there's a decent flow to the combat. It's closer to the speedy chaos of Shredder's Revenge than anything, and you can zip around the screen taking out multiple opponents with ease once you get the hang of it. Fighting is breezy and fun, and Digital Eclipse has done a great job of taking notes from how the Turtles games create variations on the Foot Soldiers to stretch the Putty forces into a varied bunch. It's rare to fight any basic enemies that aren't Putties, with the Tenga Warriors serving as the other main punching bag baddies. The AI isn't very clever, but I suspect most don't want it to be in this kind of game.
Screenshot by Siliconera
The boss battles by and large lean hard into the phase-based approach. You'll be able to attack them for a bit, then they'll go invincible and do some kind of pattern you'll have to dodge a few times, then back to the vulnerable state, and repeat until dead. I'm not personally a huge fan of this style of boss battle in a beat 'em up, but outside of one extremely annoying portion of the fight with Bones, I didn't find any of these fights terribly egregious. Solo players might find themselves vexed by a couple instances where the battle was clearly designed for multiplayer, however.
Multiplayer is a key component of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind . At this point in time, you can have up to two players online and five in local play, but Digital Eclipse has stated that you'll be able to go online with more players in the near future. At any rate, even one additional player makes a huge difference here. As I said earlier in the review, this game gets a lot better if you take it more as a Power Rangers game than as a beat 'em up. The Power Rangers aren't exactly known for going it solo. It can be a challenge to design a game to work well in both single-player and multiplayer, and this one leans more towards satisfying the latter experience.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Some of the bosses and enemy encounters can be troublesome when you're alone, and it sometimes feels as though your moveset is insufficient to deal with everything being thrown at you. When you're flying solo, it's a lot easier to notice how rote the Scaler stages and Megazord fights are. Even the voice clips seem to assume other players on the field, which comes off weird when you're the only Ranger around. Bring in other players, and you'll have a far better time. It's incredibly chaotic with a full set of five, but you'll not only be able to handle the challenges with greater ease but also will be able to pump each other up when the game starts cooking up its more hyped moments.
The only fly in this multiplayer operation comes in the Megazord fights. There's only one giant robot, after all. You end up passing control to the next player when you take damage or reach a new level of the Power Sword gauge, and it comes off as a clumsy solution for a difficult problem. It at least keeps everyone on their toes, if nothing else. Again, if everyone buys into the premise and is rocking along to the chants of GO GO POWER RANGERS , this isn't going to be a big deal. As a game design element it's somewhat lacking in elegance, but the presentation helps paint over it.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Indeed, the presentation is virtually unassailable in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind . The pixel-art graphics are excellent, both detailed and well-animated. The backgrounds are packed with fun details, and I got a kick out of the different Putty disguises. The Super Scaler-style stages look terrific, and the Megazord fights do an superb job of making you feel like you're in the cockpit. The music rocks in all the right ways. The main theme isn't overused, and the additional tunes fit perfectly. I love that Bulk and Skull's theme is in here despite the pair being not much more than a cameo. The sound effects are great, too. Hits have a nice thwack to them, just like in the show.
You also have access to a really good CRT-style filter, and while I am not normally in love with such things, this one was good enough that I kept it on during most of my playtime. In terms of other options, there are four different difficulty settings including one you'll have to earn. You can also play a speed run mode that times you as you make your way through each stage. In true Digital Eclipse fashion, there are also some unlockable faux-retro games that you can play in the Juice Bar. They're all quite enjoyable, and they'll keep track of your high scores.
Screenshot by Siliconera
At the very least, I can say that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is a well-made game with a lot of love put into it. How much farther than that it goes really depends on how you approach it. A solo player looking for the next top-tier beat 'em up is going to find that a lot of annoying design choices were made here. A Power Rangers fan with some friends in tow looking to relive the good old days is going to have an absolute blast. I'm not sure if I would call this the best game to carry the Power Rangers license, but I'm comfortable calling it the best Power Rangers game. Go, go.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
The post Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Is a Faithful Ode appeared first on Siliconera .
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