Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind feels like a 90s time capsule

In the late 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took over every aspect of pop culture. That included arcades, where the series was adapted into some of the greatest beat 'em ups ever experienced. In the mid-1990s, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers took over every aspect of pop culture. That would have included arcades, but the arcade beat 'em up was no longer en vogue. The series found a home on video game consoles, but it never got an arcade brawler, a genre that the series was seemingly born for. Digital Eclipse is hoping to make up for lost time with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, a game that's as much a love letter to the long-running butt-kicking franchise as it is to the arcade brawlers of yesteryear. Shacknews recently went to PAX West 2024 to try it out.

The story of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind picks up in the future, based loosely on Netflix's recent Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always special. Robo Rita (essentially Rita Repulsa's final form) has a plan to finally get rid of the Power Rangers and take over the world and it involves going back in time 30 years to team with her younger self. This sets the stage for a brawler set during the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

What's funny is, this game looks like it could have been pulled straight from the era of that first Power Rangers season. Digital Eclipse has put together a brawler that looks and feels like it came straight out of the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis era of gaming. Visually, with its character sprites and art style, it looks like it came out of a time capsule.

Of course, Rita's Rewind is modern where it counts. The game will feature five-player drop-in, drop-out co-op play, locally and online. It'll stay five players even after the Green Ranger gets unlocked at the end of the campaign. More importantly, the game's design feels like a mixture of classic beat 'em up mechanics with enjoyable modern level design. Each Ranger can punch and kick with the best of them on the ground and can mix in rising punches to take down airborne targets and dive kicks for some extra power. Players can also build up meter to unleash massive screen-wide attacks. Co-op partners can also feed one another, just like in the old show, tossing enemies their way so that they can catch them with a well-timed attack.

Goldar showed off how boss fights will work on the ground. Rita's top lieutenant can surround himself with bursts of magma by striking the ground with his sword. He can also call forth the Putty Patrol to lend a hand. After Goldar is defeated, the demo ends with 1993 Rita throwing down her wand to make Goldar grow.

On that note, Rita's Rewind showed off a classic beat 'em up aesthetic, but the demo didn't show off the various ideas that promise to set this game apart from its contemporaries. The final version of the game will feature Zord sections, where each player will control their Dinozord individually. This leads to Megazord sequences, where all players share a cockpit, and the boss fight turns into something akin to Punch-Out. Players will also explore other vehicle sequences that take the action away from the ground, like a section where the Rangers will ride their cycles in pursuit of the evil Crabby Cabby.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind looks like it'll develop into a fun "What if?" story. There's enough fan service for long-time series watchers to enjoy, whether they're enemies from later seasons showing up to confront the Rangers or classic characters featured as collectibles. What I played offered a good dose of nostalgia, but it'll be interesting to see how the whole package comes together to create something wholly unique. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is aiming to hit PC and consoles this fall.

This preview is based on an early demo played on the PAX West 2024 show floor. The final product is subject to change.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?