It’s Morphin time!
The scrolling beat ’em up renaissance continues! But this time Digital Eclipse is throwing their hat in the ring and giving us a truly arcade inspired take using the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The classic version of the team are trying to stop Robo-Rita (a robot reincarnation of Rita?) from going back to time to team up with herself to stop the Power Rangers from ever forming.
But as the name indicates, time manipulation somewhat plays a role in the game but it’s not very heavily involved from a gameplay perspective outside instances where time crystals are brought into a stage that you need to break before they rewind time for a little bit and force you to do that immediate section again. But honestly it’s a very minor inconvenience.
Enough of the setup though, onto the meat and potatoes of the game!
Power Rangers? Nobody told me there would be Power Rangers!
I’m gonna do the gross cringe thing and just say the line. This game is a love letter to old school Power Rangers fans. While I’m not technically one of those people? I was just fan enough to remember a few of the neat references, cool little tunes, quirky characters and cheesy puns and jokes littered throughout this game’s cut scenes, gameplay and within the Juice Bar. From Tommy’s little flute tune to Zordon’s iconic “May the power protect you”, there’s no shortage of nostalgia triggers on show here.
While the game is its own story/canon, there are throwbacks to story beats from the original show due to the time travelling nature of the plotline of the game. Much like the recently released Karate Kid beat ’em up, the fan service here is great. The attention to detail in the easter eggs, collectible items and the characters you can rescue should be very familiar to fans of the original series, even if some were lost on me.
The pixel art style which is so prevalent throughout this genre is used to good effect here and the quality of the art as well as the animation are really high and there’s enough detail in the pixel designs for basically every character, be they main, enemy or NPC to be immediately recognisable. The environments are also well detailed and colourfully vibrant, all having a real personality of their own.
Digital Eclipse have also really leaned on their expertise in this sphere and implemented some really good CRT filter options. So much so that I found myself making my way through around 70% of the game before I realised the CRT1 filter was still on and switched it off so any screenshots I was taking were a bit cleaner for the written review.
May the power protect you
This game’s biggest strength is the constant amount of gameplay change ups it throws at you. Rather than risk falling to the common problem these games suffer from – the repetitive gameplay loop, Rita’s Rewind is always trying to change it up and it’s a really welcome shift.
One level will be a regular scrolling beat ’em up level, but then the next will be a Hang On like motorbike level or a Star Fox inspired level as your individual Zord bots, or even a melee based first person Boss Fight with all 5 Rangers formed together as Mechazord to take down a giant enemy. All complete with amazing Mode 7 scaling effects that beautifully capture the visual style of the 16-bit era.
But the best part is, these aren’t just throw away levels. It feels like serious thought and design went into them and I personally would argue they do what they do better than the beat ’em up levels do.
As expected, local co-op for up to 5 players is available (6 once you unlock the Green ranger) which is a very welcome number and while online co-op isn’t there day one, it is planned to come soon after launch for two players at first and then six later down the line. Not ideal? But still better than no online at all which has worryingly become the norm of late.
But it doesn’t end there, within the Juice Bar, there are three arcade machines, two of which are broken to begin with (they repair throughout the course of the game) all which have their own full blown unique and fully playable 80s arcade games on them! I actually found myself spending a lot of time on Drive Bomber, which is a Spy Hunter inspired racer. All three are neat little time wasters for players to sink their teeth into because that old man instinct to set the high score will take hold faster than you’d think.
Victory is yours
But of course, how does the game play? Anyone who knows me will know just how important this aspect is to me in basically any game, but especially in a scrolling beat ’em up. Well, I’m somewhat sad to report that Rita’s Rewind doesn’t quite stick the landing here. While it’s not as clunky and imprecise as Karate Kid Street Rumble it also doesn’t get near the gold standard in the genre in Shredder’s Revenge or Streets of Rage 4. Your ranger just doesn’t quite feel as nimble or agile as I’d hoped and the hit detection zone around the enemies can get a bit funny on larger enemies and items.
This is somewhat exacerbated by the difficulty of the game. As I generally do, I played on easy and still found myself struggling at times, even earlier on in the game. While I didn’t get a chance to play in co-op, I have a sneaking suspicion the difficulty was probably tuned with co-op in mind. The combo of higher than normal difficulty and the slightly sluggish and imprecise controls can lead to some moderately frustrating moments.
Oddly, this doesn’t seem to apply to the non-beat ’em up levels. While they get difficult in the later stages, the controls feel much better and any deaths feel less frustrating. As I mentioned earlier, the non-beat ’em levels I feel execute better on their gameplay mechanics than the beat ’em up ones do. The bike levels in particular are great fun.
The combat options themselves are ok. Fairly standard stuff on offer here. Attack, Jump, Dodge and Specials pair up with a decent juggle and combo system to provide players without enough here to play with in terms of creating your own combos and having a variety of options to dispatch enemies with. Be it with your own fists or environmental items.
I have the Power inside me, and so do you!
Overall, I’d say Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is worth your time if you’re a fan of the genre and especially if you’re a Power Rangers fan. The presentation is excellent, from the character select screen to the in-game speech scenes, everything feels like the Power Rangers TV show. I particularly loved the little nods Digital Eclipse included to other classics in the genre. Be it the little baby turtles wading in radioactive goo in the background of one level, to the giant enemies dressed like Hugo Andore from Final Fight. There’s a loving care placed into the finer details of the game that’s really worthy of acknowledgement and appreciation.
While there are some oddities or frustrations like the less than tight control, or the baffling inability to change your character during the game outside of completely quitting, there’s a lot to like and love here.
Yeah, Rita’s Rewind doesn’t quite stand toe to toe with the greats of the genre, even the modern ones, but it’s still a very worthy entrant into this classic genre still in the midst of a high quality revival.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind | Review
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Authentic Power Rangers experience
- Co-op both offline and online (soon after launch)
- Tonne of variety in gameplay/options
- Great music and audio
CONS
- Slightly sluggish and imprecise combat
- Controls not overly tight
- No option to change characters during game, have to quit out to main menu
- No option to change control scheme
