It’s been 7 years since the last attempt at making a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers video game, and as much grief as I gave that game, I thought Rita’s Rewind would be a lot better… I was wrong. This game shows that Digital Eclipse should spend more time making awesome retro collections and maybe hand new projects on retro brands to someone who can do it right: Like Tribute Games.
Name: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, & Xbox Series X/S
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Digital Eclipse
Game Type: Side-scroller, Beat ’em up
Mode(s): Single-player, Co-op
Release Date: December 10, 2024
Rita’s Rewind the Plot Please!
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Story Summary – SPOILERS
Story Review – Some Vague Spoilers
Yeah… The story isn’t much. You get Robo Rita going back in time and saying over and over that she has a plan, arguing with her younger self… And that’s it. Eventually, they rope the Green Ranger into things, but I’d be surprised by anyone who spends that much time with the game in order to get that far. There are references to things from the show, but that’s it. Rita’s Rewind tries hard and fails to get those nostalgic heartstrings going for anyone to give a shit.
You do get some ok things happening. You get to walk around the Angel Grove Juice Bar, talking to people like Ernie, Bulk & Skull, and other people you rescue along the way in each level, which is represented in a Cowabunga Collection-style map system, just not as interesting or interactive… Speaking of which, watch out in Episode 2 for a funny TMNT reference.
Retro Graphics Out of 1993
If you like 16-bit graphics, then you’ll love Rita’s Rewind. Otherwise, Rita’s Rewind feels and looks like something that should have been left in the 1990s. Using the CRT settings will give a nice old-school feel, but with it off, you can see that these types of graphics are gone for a reason. Hell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge managed to keep its old-school charm while making the graphics look like a homage to what drew people to the arcades for the first time. Rita’s Rewind on the other hand, just feels old and outdated.
Making things worse is the recreation of the Mode 7 techniques that the SNES used back in the day. While people wouldn’t mind this is something like a Power Rangers Collection, doing this in a modern game feels dated and wrong. During these moments you can’t judge the depth of field required to time attacks and dodges, making things hard for no other reason than to just be “faithful to the original SNES games”.
If this was a collection, which we know Digital Eclipse can do really well, then I could forgive it, but my experience with the game was nothing but a visual nightmare and I can’t deal with that level of trash in 2024.
Rita’s Rewind This Gameplay to Something Good
You’re going to be punching your way through Rita’s Rewind against several different kinds of Putties, ranging from the generic grey ones that were made popular in the show, a purple boulder-carrying one that will block all the damn time, drill-handed ones that are pointless, orange ones that throw bombs, and Tengu from the Power Rangers movie for no reason… That’s if you manage to hit them with the inch-perfect requirement to get a hitbox happening.
This is double for the boss characters, who have Area of Effect attacks, screen-reaching laser beams, and other attacks that are so mistimed that you are going to take damage no matter what you do. Then when you are done with the side-scroller battle, you’ve got to suffer through some of the worst “Mode 7” style shooter levels that will mess with you so badly that you’ll want to smash your controller in frustration… Even worse if you when to suffer through this mode in a first-person battle, dodging attacks by going left or right, then bashing two buttons to power up the Power Sword before delivering the finishing blow. Doing this through this mode makes dodging hard to time, leaving you to get hit anyway.
The gameplay in Rita’s Rewind is bad, really bad.
I will admit that I spent my review time with Rita’s Rewind playing the game solo, having to take time going through what is clearly a multi-player game. However, I’m unsure that I want to play with other people as it would make the game look like a bigger mess than it should.
Should Have Listened to Shredder’s Revenge
Rita’s Rewind is one of those games that sounded good in production and in trailers, even our impression from PAX West was somewhat positive. However, the end result just feels like something that is stuck in the SNES/Genesis era instead of making a new modern classic. At least Shredder’s Revenge made things feel like an Arcade classic with a modern art style, Rita’s Rewind is a 16-bit mess of pointless lives, slow movement animation, terrible hit detection, and a lot of boring gameplay.
Outside of unlocking Tommy, the Green Ranger, there is nothing worth doing once the game has finished. Hell, with my first playthrough I was able to get through 51% of the game before rage quitting due to hitting a wall with an enemy that was impossible to hit without dying over and over again, each time I got a Game Over I wanted to smash my screen in frustration because I’d have to do the level over from the beginning… Not even a continue screen to keep going. It’s this bullshit that was left in the 16-bit era for a reason.
Rita’s Rewind This Back into Development… NOW!
I’m sorry Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle… Looking back, that game is the Power Rangers game that we should have been praising. It was something new, and different, and actually looked like it was modernized. Rita’s Rewind is a horrible attempt to capture the SNES/Genesis era of Power Rangers games with a modern coating of… something. Rita’s Rewind feels soulless, void of anything interesting, and just all-around annoying. Even the old SNES games were better than this… Maybe Digital Eclipse should have done a retro collection with a huge amount of bonus material as they did with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection instead of trying to do something new like this.
Review Disclosure Statement: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind was provided to us by Digital Eclipse for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please read our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
Summary
Rita’s Rewind is another failure for the Power Rangers brand. First, the TV show ends with a badly made, under-budget version of something that wasn’t liked at all, then the figures have been licensed out to Playmate Toys (This might end up being a good thing with time), all the props and costumes have been sold off at auction, and now the video game that looked to revive the old-school Power Rangers feeling comes out and messed up. No wonder Hasbro is trying to offload everything to do with Power Rangers as they can’t get anything right.
Pros
- Tommy, the Green Ranger, is unlockable
Cons
- Horrible 16-bit graphics
- Gameplay that should have been dead by now
- A story that is as pointless as Cosmic Fury was
- Mode 7 graphics that never work right
