Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Digital Eclipse
Platforms: Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Playstation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $34.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
The Power Rangers have a long if not bumpy road in history when it comes to gaming. Sure, there have been some true winners years ago, but mostly – the franchise has limped along with middling releases every few years that do little to push any boundaries. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Revenge wants to correct that by creating new out of the old, acting as a tribute to the franchise and its past video game hits with an all-original title. Can this retro beat-em-up deliver, or is this one lineup that falls before it gets out of the command center? Let’s find out.
Story
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Revenge is an arcade brawler, and it’s not easy to tell a compelling story with that genre as the focus is on the pick-up and play nature of the game. That said, there has been some great attempts in the last decade, which is why I went into Rita’s Rewind so hopeful. This story has Robo Rita return to cause havoc on the current team of rangers in 2023. If you haven’t seen the special on Netflix “Once and Always“, I advise you to get caught up there as this acts as an alternate version of that. If Robo Rita went to the past, how would the younger rangers handle her and the original Rita?
It’s a great concept and that television special was awesome, so why not have an extension of that? Well, what we get here is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of story. There is a lot to love as a longtime fan of Power Rangers, like several little callbacks to the show, with references dabbling in the most obscure. Digital Eclipse did their homework, and it shows. This world feels like Angel Grove until it doesn’t. Maybe I am just a cynic, but there are a lot of shoved-in plotlines here, and the stages don’t really make sense other than the guess that the timeline is all sorts of wonky. You have the original team right after they get their powers, completely understanding their zords, Rita, and even putties – with other random foes from the first season scattered in a three-hour journey.
I get it, Power Rangers does this thing where the plot is laid out and viewers just take it because why not? It’s cheesy and most of the time, even enjoyable to see unfold here. That said, as someone who has played every Power Rangers game I could get my hands on for the last thirty years, the pacing and plot holes in Rita’s Rewind make it feel like stuff was cut or left out, as some stages just feel pasted together outside of minor cutscenes. Forgivable? Of course! It’s still Power Rangers, but it does lose a little bit of lustre when you think of how good it could have been with a little more cohesion.
Gameplay
This is what makes or breaks a brawler. The gameplay here is thankfully solid and lacking any glitches or other bugs, as while very basic, the fighting here is fluid and fast. In normal “ranger” stages, players fight their way through putties and other henchman until they reach a boss. Yep, just like most other beat-em-ups. The issue here is the lack of variety. There are no differences outside of suit colour that separate how the game feels. No weapons to show off distinct personalities from the show (who are all featured in likeness, by the way), and no special fighting styles. Just punches and kicks that all look the same.
It’s still a solid beat-em-up, but one that kind of gets old due to the lack of variety. As a comparison, even the old SNES and Genesis games of the same genre had variances and special weapons, and while we do get one special attack that looks unique, the effect has the exact same outcome – making it feel dated and vanilla out of the gate. To add more variety, stages change concepts quite a bit, and that does work at times. The carnival stage has you riding on a coaster, shooting down putties with your blasters, while there is also a neat cycle stage that is a great callback to other older racers of the era. There is a mix, but there are also some major problems with how one concept was executed.
Zord battles are not fun. Think of Space Harrier mixed with a little bit of Star Fox. You get in your Zord, and run on a forward path until the end of the stage. Cool, right? Well, not here. The zords all only have the same attack, and that is shooting. The reticle is a pain to move however and has issues with certain targets. This mainly comes in when you have to shoot targets to move to the next area, and you can only really move left or right to get the target lined up with your attack. It’s a pain because these stages are chaotic. At first, everything is overloaded and exciting to see everything coming your way, but soon it becomes a chore to navigate it all as if you die, you go back to the start of the level. The whole thing is a frustrating mess that already feels out of place with the show, and that is followed by a first-person punch fest in the Megazord that never feels like a satisfying climax.
Megazord battles in Power Rangers games have always been a bit off. The older ones were handled as a skin for your character, keeping it as a brawler. Fun, but basic. More modern ones have always had this same odd path to get to the sword slash, and that’s what we have here. Maybe if the checkpoint and continue system were revamped, this would be less tedious, but it still isn’t really that fun. We finally get to play as individual Dino Zords, and they are subjected to a loud battle of patience.
That’s my main problem with Rita’s Rewind as a whole. Sometimes you never know you’re in a boss battle until it’s over. The Megazord battles are not awful by default, but the lead-in stage is, making it feel less impactful to deliver that final blow. When boss battles are in standard brawler mode, they can be decent, but the game throws so many extra activities at you for those sections that it also can be a bit tiring and grindy. I get it, it is hard to balance a beat-em-up when it comes to Power Rangers as you want to show off how crazy the universe is and let players have a taste of everything. The identity here suffers due to the execution. It just feels like all of these stages were rushed, developed separately, and then pasted together. Adding the word “episode” to try to resolve the disjointed state created even more break from what this game wanted to be, and made it feel less connected as the player moves forward.
Audio
There is something good out of all of this. The soundtrack is fantastic! The music really is reminiscent of the SNES Mighty Morphin title that this one seems inspired by. Each song is a stand-out, and you can tell a lot of love went into trying to capture the essence and theme of each area. Then we get to the theme song, which I get Ron Wasserman isn’t exactly working with the Power Rangers these days, but that newer version of the theme that has been featured in a lot of recent content for this era just doesn’t fit there, and it doesn’t fit here either. Just make it an instrumental, as it’s a bit polarizing to hear a dorky, more poppy version of one of the most iconic theme songs on television while we are celebrating a major battle in the game. There is voice acting – which is decent on its own, but the usage of the same phrases like “CAN I GET SOME ASSISTANCE!?” can be a bit gnawing after the hundredth time.
Visuals
The visuals are great. We get that 16-bit flare, and the details show as all of the chaos moves together. This team did a good job with the presentation. It’s a shame we don’t get to feel that with more move variation, but alas – you are going to get a good dose of dopamine when you see the colours hit the filtered screen. Stages are mostly good as well, but sometimes lack a lot of background activity and animation that more modern brawlers have incorporated, making a few areas far less interesting than others.
Overall
This is a difficult game to review for a lot of reasons. I wanted to love this so much as Power Rangers holds a piece of my heart that will never fade. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is by no means a bad game, but it is sloppy, and that is a shame as you can see moments of brilliance quite often on this journey. The game’s pacing and stages are disjointed with the narrative, and somehow the spirit of the show gets lost in all the clutter. It’s too chaotic to be something so simple, yet not detailed enough to fit within the source material. It’s as if all of these great ideas to build this project were on a board, and due to time constraints, were blended up and pasted together. Longtime fans starving for a new adaptation will find stuff here to appreciate, but Rita’s Rewind ultimately is too bogged down by its own weight to recommend at the current entry fee.
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