Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind does for “Power Rangers” what Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge did for “Ninja Turtles” a couple of years ago. And that’s to make a side-scrolling beat’em up that evokes nostalgia but is made entirely new. I’m a massive Power Rangers fan, and have been for its entire 30-year run. The quality of games made for this franchise have not been good or anything anyone was wanting since the 90s. It’s good then that Digital Eclipse has made a “Power Rangers” game by “Power Rangers” fans for “Power Ranger” fans, and it shows. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is what dreams are made of, but it’s much better and more exciting in reality.
Story mode is the main mode of the game, and it starts off in medias res, showing seemingly the final boss battle before being sent back in time to start over. Taking place after what feels to be the events of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always“, Robo Rita is once again on the loose, messing with time. She reverses time and inserts herself in the timeline right at the start of the TV show, where the rangers first assemble and get to know their powers. It’s a great plot device to introduce or even reintroduce players to the world and characters. You have Jason as the Red Ranger, Kimberly as the Pink Ranger, Billy as the Blue Ranger, Trini as the Yellow Ranger, Zack as the Black Ranger. From here you’ll get a highlight reel of the first season of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”. And yes, for those wondering, Tommy the Green Ranger is in the game – he is unlocked once you complete the story for the first time.
There are four difficulties in the game: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Headache (named after RIta Repulsa’s penchant for getting headaches after battling the Rangers). I played on the normal skill and found it to be fair and balanced for the most part. There are five episodes with three stages associated to it, for 15 stages in total. While the show had a predictable formula, the game does try to do different things even though the structure will be largely the same. In one level it’ll be a traditional beat’em up, the next is a shoot’em up, and the last one is a rock’em sock’em robots minigame from the first-person perspective. When it’s all said and done, it’ll take anyone around three hours to see the credits, where my time according to my save file was actually two hours and 34 minutes.
Playing through each stage can take anywhere from five to ten minutes depending on deaths and how quickly you dispatch the enemies. On-foot sequences are always fun and feels like the old Power Ranger games. You’ll walk run, jump, flip, and punch & kick your way through most stages. The dodge via flip is infinite use and has no cooldown – it also is impervious to everything but explosions for some reason. The controls are simple, but allow for combos to where I was able to stun-lock enemies (called ‘putties’) without allowing them to attack me even once. Through constant attacks, you’ll charge your super which can be used to essentially clear the screen of enemies.
I will say that zord levels are my least favorite, these tend to run too long and feature the largest difficulty spike. I did find that if you play as Kimberly her pterodactyl zord avoids most ground hazards and makes things easier than the other four land-based zords you pilot. Once you get to the megazord sequence, things go into a bit of an autopilot, but it’s pretty much a payoff for everything you’ve endured up until that point. Playing this from the first-person perspective is so unique and fun, these fights to my understanding cannot be lost, as I’ve taken a lot of damage trying to get used to the flow. Then the power sword comes down, and you’re able to do a final strike that gets rid of them permanently. I did find the power sword usage to be lacking, as the attacks didn’t seem to connect and didn’t provide the finality I was hoping for.
I’m loving the variation of putty designs. In the show, there was only one design of putties for the Rangers to fight. Here, the game takes inspiration from other beat’em ups of its kind, and introduces different palettes and abilities they can use on you. There’s drill putties, bomb putties, carnival putties, and a super putty that’s comprised of at least three putties combined to be brute and take the longest to put down. At the end of every stage you’ll fight bosses, from Goldar to the hilarious Turkey Jerk, and other fan favorites. There’s a lot to pull from, so picking even from the first season alone had to been some tough choices.
The time disruptor is a device that has a short fuse before it explodes, and then rewinds time to before it appeared on-screen. The twist is that the device sustains the damage it has taken, and you have to destroy it before moving on. There’s no consequences because you’ll always have a chance to destroy it, so it always becomes a game of trying to destroy it without it rewinding time. Robo Rita powers all her time manipulation via crystals, which can be destroyed across all stages, but their importance is referenced but never really felt in-game.
There are bonus modes to the game: Combat Training and Speed Run. Combat training is just what you think, it allows players of all kinds to get acquainted to the controls before embarking on the campaign, or wanting to try something out first. The other mode is Speed Run, which is a true-to-form mode for tracking times spent per level, with deltas in difference in time completion. I’m not fond of the timer as it continues counting through cutscenes and dialogue choices. I do wish there was a Boss Rush mode, but I’m glad there’s a couple of extras to be had here.
Like a good arcade game, there is local co-op to be found here. On PC, Xbox, and Switch you can have all six Power Rangers going through the game. On PlayStation, the maximum number is reduced to four players (due to the Bluetooth limitation for controllers), and there is online co-op but it is unfortunately limited to only two players right now. A free update coming post-launch will increase the number of online players.
The popularity of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” was at a fever pitch in the early 90s. Playing through this game evoked so much nostalgia and I really enjoyed the twists on the genre. The music is a wonderful compliment here that pulls in familiar themes, but has a whole lot of new to be heard. There’s a whole lot of sequel potential here, and I hope they come to fruition, because I’m eager for more of this. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is the game Power Rangers fans have been waiting for.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
