Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Review – Review
Still one of the greatest TV theme songs of all time.
It’s been a while since we’ve had to rewind a video tape before returning it to Blockbuster, but Digital Eclipse is ending 2024 by bringing us back to 1993 in all its Putty-punching glory. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is a side-scrolling Brawler straight out of the ‘90s, and fans of the show and that generation of video games should find an enjoyable romp. It’s not without a few blemishes that keep it from reaching the heights of other recent beat-’em-ups, but the gameplay variety manages to keep things fresh enough to make it worth summoning the Megazord one more time.
The plot of Rita’s Rewind takes us from the present to the past as a robotic version of the titular villainess finds a way to open a time portal to bring herself back to the ‘90s and the beginning of the original Power Rangers’ team and story. Yes, we’re talking Jason, Billy, Zach, Trini, and Kimberly, and you can throw in Skull and Bulk for good measure. Your objective is to foil the plans of not one but two Ritas as they cause havoc all over Angel Grove. From city streets, rooftops, and highways to a base on the moon, it’s your job to put the “might” in Mighty Morphin.
The controls feel pretty good as you punch, jump kick, and blast your way across more than a dozen stages. Most of these come in the form of straightforward side-scrollers, some play like rail shooters like Star Fox or Space Harrier, and the rest consist of Punch Out-like boss bouts. The brawler segments feature secrets to find and pretty standard elements like health restoring items and a super meter that fills up as you smash Putties, taunt, or collect coins (typically found in crates). The shooter stages utilize a behind the back camera as the Rangers zip through in their Zords or on motorcycles. The larger-than-life boss fights in the Megazord are challenging but largely play out the same each time, which is a bit disappointing.
The Switch version has local co-op for up to five players (six after rolling credits) with online multiplayer set to be added in a planned update. Performance is solid all around, and the attractive hand-drawn pixel art helps to conjure up nostalgia for when I had my own light up Morpher toy and Dragonzord-summoning dagger. The soundtrack is fine enough and employs the classic theme an appropriate amount. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to switch characters outside of quitting the game and reloading your story file, which is a little frustrating.
In addition to an unlockable sixth character and fourth difficulty mode, there are a handful of early arcade-style games you can access after finding hidden parts in the game. These arcade cabinets are at the show’s juice bar, along with some familiar faces you can interact with. A speed run mode rounds out the extras on offer. There’s an odd mechanism that pushes the screen forward sometimes and can force your party members to fall into a pit or miss out on collectibles, and I hope it gets addressed in a future update.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind does an admirable job of channeling the ‘90s show and video game era. The Rangers themselves are a bit hard to distinguish in terms of how they play, which makes subsequent playthroughs a bit less enticing, but there are stage objectives to complete for those so inclined. While the different stage types keep the action from getting stale, the Megazord segments are a bit of a letdown in terms of both gameplay and presentation. All in all, seeing another decades-old property brought back for another ride that plays well and hits those nostalgic notes is a welcome fourth quarter addition to the Switch’s stable of brawlers.
