Published , by Lucas White
Published , by Lucas White
Like many hot TV series for kids in the 90s, Power Rangers’ superhero-like action was quickly and easily translated to video games. Arcade-style brawlers were part of the equation, but like many such games of that era, none of them stood out enough to be considered classics today. That’s probably in part because these games didn’t come from more powerful, crowd-pleasing arcade attractions made by industry standard-bearers like Konami, Capcom, or Data East. But what if Power Rangers, an IP that feels just as tailor-made for beat ‘em ups as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, did have those arcade glory days that could be called back to with the kind of audacious nostalgia-pumping behind something like Dotemu’s Shredder’s Revenge?
Digital Eclipse, a studio best known for reviving classics for modern platforms and its documentary Gold Master series (and that bizarre Space Jam 2 game), has attempted to answer that question with Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, a brand-new game that feels like an explosive tribute to something that never actually existed. In fact, Rita’s Rewind is so similar in energy, style, and structure (the stage select screens stop just short of identical) to Shredder’s Revenge it’s almost like peering into an alternative universe in which Konami’s Turtles in Time was “Rangers in Time” instead. As of this writing the game’s soundtrack is even improperly credited to Shredder’s Revenge composer Tee Lopes on Wikipedia, and if I hadn’t played the game and seen the credits for myself I’d probably believe it.
But that doesn’t mean Digital Eclipse didn’t step up to the plate without its own ideas. Rita’s Rewind is obviously inspired by Konami’s old coin-op brawlers and modern tributes thereof, but it also includes earnest efforts to stand out and feel like a Power Rangers game, rather than a TMNT game wearing Power Rangers’ skin. Zords, the animal-based mechs the Rangers pilot to fight super-sized enemies have their own Space Harrier-inspired stages for example, and the Voltron-like Megazord is featured in distinct boss battles that follow their own set of rules as well. Meanwhile, the on the ground fighting with the Rangers themselves has a slower, meatier pace against more challenging, aggressive enemies compared to many similar brawlers that give it a relatively different cadence.
Rita’s Rewind is a true assault on the senses, leaping onto the screen the moment you turn it on with raw, unhinged energy the likes of which I haven’t experienced with a Power Rangers game before. It doesn’t slow down once, with Sean Bialo’s soundtrack popping off like an SNES-era Konami tool set stretched and mutated by time-traveling wizards and an intense, bleedingly colorful visual style held in check by a gorgeous, custom CRT filter that’s turned on by default. When it’s time to play one of the auto-scrolling levels on Zords or motorcycles the visuals get even more wild and bombastic, sometimes to the detriment of gameplay (it's hard to see and aim when the whole screen is screaming at you!). Even with some problems I had with the overall package, I was not bored for a second through multiple runs of a roughly three-hour runtime.
The most interesting aspect of Rita’s Rewind is how each playable Ranger comes with gameplay differences in different spots. For example, the Yellow Ranger is harder to use due to much shorter melee range, while the Pink Ranger’s flying Zord makes those levels much easier. The Red Ranger’s sword reaches behind him mid-combo, giving him a small advantage in crowd control. Some of these differences are more noticeable than others, and not all of them are clear advantage/disadvantage tradeoffs. They just feel like different characters, not unlike how in TMNT games the heroes’ weapons have slightly different ranges, but more complex.
Less interesting and more annoying are ways in which the slower pace I mentioned before opens up points of frustration. There are moments where it feels like, in trying to make the moment to moment action feel different compared to the almost universal cadence we see in a lot of brawlers, Digital Eclipse missed some avoidable problems. It feels kind of like while the Rangers move a little slower than you’d expect, the enemies operate like “normal” brawler baddies. As a result, there are vulnerabilities that crop up that feel out of place, such as normal enemies able to interrupt basic combos, or certain enemies able to grab you instantly or hit you on knockdown recovery without giving you a window to react.
I was able to adjust to the pace and get by just fine, but between that and some gnarly input-reading from foes later in the game (and one boss in particular), these adjustments felt more like trying to out-cheese the game and not meeting a fun challenge. I also wasn’t a fan of the upwards attack or the ground pound, because these moves didn’t seem to actually provide their advertised utility. For the former, enemies that went up in the air were often out of reach anyway, and for the latter I’d often just get bopped out of it whenever I tried to use it. The regular genre staple dive kick was perfectly fine, at least!
Most of the time though, I still had a lot of fun running through Rita’s Rewind, beating the stuffing out of putties and other monsters, and chasing down the original series’ goofy boss monsters in the Rangers’ signature vehicles and mechs. I haven’t really thought much about Power Rangers in a long time, so it was a nice bit of organic nostalgia instead of the constant barrage I feel from video games normally. There have been other attempts over the years at making an impact with a Power Rangers game, but none of them (even the quite solid Battle for the Grid fighting game) have quite had the aggressive sense of style Digital Eclipse brought to the table here. With a few little tweaks and perhaps some additional content over time, Rita’s Rewind could really be a badge of honor. And even as it is now, it’s miles ahead of that Space Jam game.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is available on December 10, 2024 for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. A code for the PC version was provided by the publisher for review.