At the end of the day, Rita’s Rewind wins me over on the nostalgia bomb of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers content. It’s the complete audio-visual package of 90s aesthetic with a welcome evolution of the MMPR gameplay loop. Some of this gameplay loop may be frustrating and unforgiving, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.
Earlier this year, I came across an editorial arguing that it’s time that we left Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR) behind. The author, while well intentioned, argued that the original show’s cheesiness, target audience of 90s kids (err, 90s adults who are aging gracefully, thank you very much), and arguable degree of cringiness has been oft overlooked by longtime fans’ rose-tinted glasses and cult-like nostalgia. This is all being said while Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind was announced during the Summer Games Fest.
I have worn my 90s-kid rose-colored glasses with pride (heh) over the past thirty-somethin’ years. I’ve sat by, idly watching while cult-classic franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog, and even Ghostbusters have been rereleased, rebooted, or for the case of Ghostbusters, reimagined for modern audiences. One thing is crystal clear about these classic 90s franchises and their new 2020+ games: It doesn’t matter who the new audience is or should be; what matters is that these games should be fun.
Rita’s Rewind is a damn fun game. Nostalgic? Hell to the yes. Innovative? Not really, but I can look past that given that a game can be dumb fun without needing to change up the equation too drastically to be considered worth recommending. Unnecessarily difficult? Sadly, yes. It’s a smorgasbord of elements that, when taken together, makes for a fun party game but not one that I would recommend as a starting point for those unfamiliar with arcade-style beat-em-ups. I have spent 8 hours playing Rita’s Rewind on the PS5 this weekend (even spending part of my birthday playing it, mind you). It tries quite hard to be the 90s beat-em-up featuring MMPR that I’ve wished for all this time, but it carries with it baggage of the older gaming that is punishing, frustrating, and at times infuriating.
I’m still willing to give it another shot, though. Maybe a few more shots. Just not immediately.
The beat-em-up genre is absent from much of today’s gaming because its simplicity. It’s a rudimentary form of gameplay that requires little else than button mashing, patience, and maybe some dexterity in the form of timing blocks and/or dodging. When TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge made its way to our hands in 2022, it reinvented beat-em-up by layering additional combat abilities, six-player-co-op, and distinct playstyles to cater to players of all types. It was an accessible entrypoint to a genre that a sizable chunk of gamers has little experience playing.
Rita’s Rewind takes a step back toward the sidescrolling beat-em-up genre you and I grew up playing. Well, I won’t assume you’re the same age as me, but you get the point. Up to five players select their favorite Power Ranger and team up to defeat wave upon wave of Rita Repulsa’s Patty Patrol and Tenga Warriors, constantly moving to the left on a 2D-plane. Like older MMPR beat-em-ups, this 2D-plane has some depth to let me move up and down to weave around enemies and dodge/dash through them, but attacks are rudimentary. After landing enough basic attacks, an ultimate attack could be used that filled the screen with lightning bolts and deleted most enemies in my path.
Rita’s Rewind pits the Rangers against not one, but two Rita Repulsas. In 2024, Robo-Rita unlocks the ability to time travel and decides to go back 30 years in time to assist her earlier self in an attempt to neutralize the original high-school aged Rangers I watched on my television. She brings with her time crystals. In levels, the Putty Patrol will throw a giant canister with a green time crystal at me. I have a few seconds to pummel it to smithereens, only for it to explode and literally rewind time if I’m not fast enough, thus requiring me to destroy it again. The gimmick of Rita’s Rewind involves these time crystals being destroyed in their various forms, level after level, to take her down.
Like the time crystals, the first few levels of Rita’s Rewind transported me 30 years to the past to the golden age of sidescrollers. Levels were simple but chaotic, often relying on me button mashing to clear the screen of the Putty Patrol. The midgame, however, took a turn for the worse in adding enemies and bosses with inconsistent hitboxes and unfair attack chains that let them utterly delete my Ranger with ease. You would think that, after being thrown by a massive Putty or knocked down by a boss, you would have some invincibility for a few seconds to regain your bearings. This ended up being especially frustrated in a notable boss fight near the end featuring a boss who could chain multiple attacks together even after knocking me down, resulting in a massive chunk of my health just disappearing.
I don’t recall the 90s era of sidescrollers being this punishing. Then again, my rose-tinted glasses remain firmly on my noggin. I fear that unfamiliar players will try their hand at Rita’s Rewind and become utterly frustrated with the middle-to-late game and simply give up – at least the solo players. Co-op (which Rita’s Rewind encourages) alleviates much of the difficulty, so I guess you should play some couch co-op or online play to get through some of the grueling elements.
To their credit, Digital Eclipse changes up the MMPR classic sidescroller format by introducing other gameplay modes in between the sidescroller levels and pinnacle Megazord levels, which I’ll cover shortly. There are several levels in Rita’s Rewind that involve shoot-em-up (shmup) gameplay, either on a rollercoaster or playing as the individual Dinozords. Imagine being Billy’s Triceratops or Trini’s Saber-Toothed Tiger Dinozord and running through a canyon or downtown Angel Grove, shooting at massive crystals and enemies alike.
The shmup levels were quite difficult, but simply dumb fun. They’re presented similar to Star Wars tie-fighting with dodging, powerups, and impressive effects that highlight the destructive scale of Rita’s machinations and the Power Rangers, alike. They also were slotted at perfect points in the story, offering relief from the sidescrolling to illustrate the buildup of the Rangers’ power before the final showdown between Rita’s massive kaiju boss and the Megazord.
In every classic MMPR title, the Megazord kaiju battle is meant to be the pinnacle moment that concludes an episodic set of levels. In Rita’s Rewind, the player is placed into the cockpit of the Megazord, putting them face-to-face with the gigantic kaiju baddy at the end of the shmup sequence. This is especially impressive given that I was put in the pilot seat and was facing enemies head on rather than another sidescrolling setup but Megazord-ified.
The biggest failing of the Megazord segment is its clunkiness. It’s so. Dang. Clunky. It’s almost clunky to the point of being frustrating to play. Controlling the Megazord is simple, mind you, only having me move forward, dodge left or right, and then clobbering the enemy with the Square or X buttons if I’m close. The enemies rarely stand still, often jumping backwards and forcing me to rush forward to get a single hit in before they jump back again. I would have hoped the Megazord sequences would involved hefty attacks or supreme displays of power, but that falls short.
Looking past the clunkiness, my general disappointment with the Megazord sequences, and inconsistencies of the sidescrolling combat, Rita’s Rewind features a great deal of depth than any of its predecessors. It excels in slotting the player within multiple slices of the MMPR narrative arc, going from sidescrolling to shmup to first-person fisticuffs combat. This approach is gloriously refreshing – it just falls short in its granular implementation.
I sit before you well into my 30s, pining for the days of early Saturday morning cartoons and afternoon reruns of MMPR. If Rita’s Rewind was placed in front of 7-year-old Will, I surely would have been hyped to play as Billy, Jason, Kimberly, Trini, and Zack again. I most likely would have been frustrated just as I am now and resort to button mashing, but I would look past the clunkiness and difficulty spikes.
All I care about is more MMPR content, specifically that which is fun yet nostalgic.
Digital Eclipse has packed Rita’s Rewind with some deep cuts of MMPR Easter Eggs and enemies. I’m already familiar with Madam Woe thanks to her presence in one of the Genesis games, but seeing Eye Guy, Bones, and other characters from MMPR’s past was awesome. There is a massive collection of enemies in the Power Rangers universe and Digital Eclipse did some awesome work in bringing oft-overlooked enemies to Rita’s Rewind.
Rita’s Rewind’s pixel art is just…glorious. Paired with the CRT-friendly effects in the game’s settings, it’s a blast to the past ala TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. It’s clear that Digital Eclipse has done some awesome work in making Rita’s Rewind a 90s nostalgia bomb, and they win on the visual design front.
The soundtrack also sounds awesome, and this is all thanks to CosmicGem. I’ve become a massive fan of CosmicGem’s soundtracks because of how well they excellently sound (Shredder’s Revenge’s remixes and Penny’s Big Breakaway come to mind, alongside many others) and encapsulate the spirit of the game where he’s composing music. For Rita’s Rewind, CosmicGem effortlessly captures Ron Wasserman’s rock meets metal meets electric guitar compositions. It’s an audio love letter to the MMPR franchise. While it doesn’t hit the highs of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie’s (SEGA Genesis) soundtrack featuring digitized variants of MMPR songs from the show and movies, Rita’s Rewind’s soundtrack kept me amped up for the duration of my playthrough.
Much of this review was written with a Power Rangers fan in mind as a target audience. At the top of this review, I referenced an editorial that alluded to the MMPR franchise not being fit for today’s audience of viewers or players. As much as I vehemently disagree with the notion of MMPR needing an audience right out of the gate, I support the notion of Rita’s Rewind finding its place amongst newer players, especially those who are outright unfamiliar with the MMPR franchise. Let’s look past the shortcomings of the gameplay for a moment: Couch co-op is becoming increasingly rare in the console space. While the Nintendo Switch has many first-party games for folks to play with friends in the same room, the fact remains that sidescrollers, shmups, and other party-based games are being overlooked for multiplayer games with players in their own rooms and on their own systems. I don’t think that Rita’s Rewind hits the same level of fun and replayability as Shredder’s Revenge, it is assuredly an easy recommendation for a party game when friends come to visit on my PS5.
At the end of the day, Rita’s Rewind wins me over on the nostalgia bomb of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers content. It’s the complete audio-visual package of 90s aesthetic with a welcome evolution of the MMPR gameplay loop. Some of this gameplay loop may be frustrating and unforgiving, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.
