Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Review

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind

Platform reviewed on: Windows

Pros

Packed full of Power Rangers fan service
Fun in co-op
Good soundtrack

Cons

Core combat isn’t very deep
The differences between Rangers are minimal
Over quick with little replayability

ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+
ESRB Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence

Review code provided by the publisher.

Beat ‘em up’s mostly became a thing of the past once the new millennium hit – outside of the occasional classic, like the excellent Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Double Dragon Neon. But it wasn’t until the early 2020s when the incredible three hit combo of River City Girls, Streets of Rage 4, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge showed that the genre many dismiss as “button mashers” still has a lot of life in it. The massive success and acclaim received by Shredder’s Revenge made it even more exciting when – earlier in 2024 – it was announced that a different group of multicolored fighting teens would get a beat ‘em up of their own.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind

Release Date: December 10, 2024

Digital Only

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is shockingly the first Power Rangers game in the classic beat ‘em up style (perhaps the SNES game is technically a beat ‘em up, but we’re talking about the Konami / Capcom style seen in X-Men and Final Fight). But unlike the new wave of brawlers – which added thoughtful additions to make them work outside of the arcades – Rita’s Rewind feels stuck in the past.

The game kicks off in the far-flung future of 2023, where Robo Rita Repulsa is battling with the spandex squad, but upon facing defeat, sends herself back to 1993 to team up with her past self and stop the Power Rangers once and for all. Over the course of 14 stages, the team will fight classic villains like Goldar, Bones, and Chunky Chicken, as well as an army of putties to put a stop to the Ritas.

The game mostly plays out like an episode of the show. You’ll be hanging out at the Angel Grove Youth Center with the likes of Ernie, Caplan, and the dynamic duo of Bulk and Skull. Then you’ll battle through a wave of putties before facing down the monster of the week. Beating on them commences a Dinozord chase, and finally a battle with the Megazord.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind screenshot showing a group of characters hanging out inside a juice bar area — ©Digital Eclipse / Restart

The best part about the game is just how into Power Rangers it gets. It’s clear the folks at Digital Eclipse really care about the series. You’ll find collectables in each level that feature cuts so deep I had to look them up. Meanwhile, the dialogue and music feel ripped out of the show.

The gameplay however, is unfortunately the game’s weakest aspect. You can play as any of the five core Power Rangers – which rises to six when you complete the game – across solo and co-op modes. Offline co-op is available for six players, unless you’re on PlayStation, where you’re limited to four. We tried the game in two-player and solo, though the majority of our time was solo. Online co-op wasn’t available prior to the game’s release, but it’s going to be limited to two players at first (with Xbox and Switch getting it after launch) before being bumped up to six in a later patch.

Despite their cosmetic differences, all six Rangers play fairly identically in the beat ‘em up sections, and on top of that, the combat options feel very limited. You have access to a light combo, an uppercut, dive kick, ground pound, and a dash/dodge attack – and that’s it for basics. You also have a bar that charges, allowing you to unleash a special attack, but outside of visual differences (Billy summons lightning, Jason summons fire), it’s basically the same screen-clearing attack. Finally, there's not much combo potential outside of co-op, with juggles being hard to pull off, and off-the-ground combo extenders being absent entirely.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind screenshot showing the blue Power Ranger summoning lighting against the Madame Woe boss — ©Digital Eclipse / Restart

The likes of Shredder’s Revenge and River City Girls feature multiple playable characters with the ability to level up and earn unique skills on top of their already unique move sets. This gave you a great reason to try out different characters, and, crucially, a reason to replay the game. Here, outside of trying out the Green Ranger, I didn’t feel the need to fully play through the game again, which – considering I beat it in about two hours – is a bit of a rough sell.

Thankfully, the Dinozord sections offer a little more variety as these take the form of a shoot ‘em

up in the vein of Space Harrier as you chase your enemies in a robot. Each ranger pilots their own Dinozord, which means Yellow’s sabretooth tiger is a bit more nimble than Red’s T-Rex. Meanwhile, Pink gets a huge advantage since pterodactyls can fly. These encounters culminate in Megazord sections that are inspired by Punch Out, as you take a first-person view to dodge enemy attacks and punch the lights out the baddies. Unfortunately, in co-op, these sections have you pass control off to another player rather than having you each control a limb.

Outside of combat, the game’s soundtrack (by composer Sean Bialo) is a real highlight. It mixes rock with the style of classic beat ‘em ups to create a great symphony to bash putties alongside, thoughtfully using motifs from the Power Rangers theme throughout. And of course, you can’t have a Megazord battle without that theme song blaring.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind screenshot showing a first-person view of a giant robot fist punching the golden monster Goldar — ©Digital Eclipse / Restart

At the same time, one aspect of the sound design I wasn’t as keen on was the voices. The acting itself is great, with each actor nailing their respective character, but the pool of voice lines is extremely limited. I was already tired of hearing Kimberly say ‘I could use a hand’ upon falling down by the end of the first level, and this doesn’t get any better for the other characters.

The Power Rangers fan in me really does like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind. The fan service and love shown to the series is on par with the likes of Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4.

But on the other hand, the beat ‘em up fan in me is disappointed with how the game turned out. The lack of character progression or variety really drags the game down, and doesn’t give you much reason to replay it – which is unfortunate considering it’s only two hours long and costs $10 more than its contemporaries. But if you’re a Power Rangers fan looking to have some fun in co-op as you go down memory lane, it’ll do the job.