Published , by Will Borger
Published , by Will Borger
I didn’t grow up as a Power Rangers kid. I know nothing about the franchise other than that they punch really goofy-looking monsters, that one really silly meme of the crazy lady rising out of… something and laughing maniacally is from Power Rangers, that it gave us Johnny Young Bosch, and there are zords. That’s it. So the finer points of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Revenge are lost on me. What I do understand after spending some time with it, though, is that Rita’s Revenge is shaping up to be a damn fine beat ‘em up that everyone can enjoy, even if (like me) you wouldn’t know who Goldar was if he slapped your ass and called you Sally.
Rita’s Rewind’s setup is pretty easy to follow even if you don’t know much about Power Rangers. See, in the future, Robo Rita has teamed up with Rita Repulsa from the past to try and take out the Power Rangers. This time-traveling gimmick operates on what developer Digital Eclipse called “arcade logic.” It doesn’t always make logical sense for some of the enemies you’ll fight to be where or when they are, but this is a beat ‘em up, baby! If you’re worried about The Lore™ in something that would look right at home in your local barcade, well… my friend, you got bigger problems. That’s not to say that things are thrown in there willy-nilly. Rita’s Rewind pulls a lot of things straight from the show, including lines of dialogue and several fun references that went completely over my head and I’m sure fans will love. But it’s not here to retell that story.
Instead, Rita’s Rewind is all about capturing The Vibe™. If you grew up in the 90s, you’ll know the best part of going to the mall was dumping quarters into arcade royalty like Turtles in Time and X-Men with your buddies. They’re classics, and there’s a reason we still speak about them in hushed tones today. But Power Rangers never got its beat ‘em up dues, despite its insane popularity. Rita’s Rewind is here to remedy that, but it doesn’t play how those games played. It plays how you remember those games playing. That means it’s easy to pick up and play. You already know how to hit guys; you just have combos now. You already know how to grab and throw dudes; it just feels better. You’ve got dive kicks, jumping attacks, and a special meter that you can charge by beating dudes into the dirt and unleashing for Damage from the Damage region of France (otherwise it's just sparkling pain, and that's not nearly as good). And all of it is rendered in absolutely gorgeous sprite art, complete with scan lines. It’s nostalgia, but better.
But Digital Eclipse isn’t here to just play the hits. After my teammates (another member of the press and one of the developers; Rita’s Rewind supports five-player, drop-in, drop-out co-op) and I finished one level, we ran into Goldar. He operated like a standard-issue beat ‘em up boss with some fun unique moves you had to figure out and punish. But once he went down, Rita was like “what if Goldar was bigger?” and we’re essentially playing Space Harrier on our Zords, running toward the screen, dodging obstacles, and shooting down evil spaceships and all sorts of other zanny things. This isn’t a one-off, either. Digital Eclipse tells me this makes up a good chunk of Rita’s Rewind’s runtime. You won’t hear me complaining, because this stuff rules.
Once we tracked him down, it was time for another twist. This time, it was a mono a mono brawl between the Megazord and Goldar, but huge. This segment takes place in first-person. You and the rest of the Rangers are in the cockpit of Megazord, piloting your mecha monstrosity through a knockdown, dragout brawl. You’re dodging fireballs and weaving through his dashing attacks, trying to land hits that will fill one of the bars to charge up your Power Sword. Take a hit, though, and one of your co-op partners swaps in. It was tricky, and it took us a few tries, but it was a lot of fun. Once you get the Power Sword fully charged, you mash every button on your controller to deliver the coup de grace. It’s cool as hell, even if you don’t have the Power Rangers nostalgia coursing through your veins.
Between levels, you can hit the Juice Bar, where you can talk to other characters and, in what has to be one of my favorite little touches, play three completely original arcade games Digital Eclipse built specifically for this game. These aren’t Power Rangers-themed arcade games, either. They’re just there because Digital Eclipse was wondering what games the Power Rangers played in their time off. It’s the little things.
Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind isn’t just a Power Rangers tribute. It’s also an homage to the 90s, to the stuff that was popular during that era, like Ninja Turtles and X-Men, and the games that came out of that time. Power Rangers never got its beat ‘em up, but Rita’s Rewind is a particularly good apology and the kind of game I wanna play with friends on a lazy Sunday over pizza and beer. And if you’re a beat ‘em up fan, that ain't a bad place to be.
This preview is based on a behind-closed-doors demo shown by the developer at New York Comic Con.