Throughout the first few levels of Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, I’d periodically turn to my fiancée Lisa – who had agreed to be my co-op partner, playing as Kimberly (easily the coolest of the original five Rangers) – and point out the game’s references and Easter eggs. “Ah, this first episode’s name is recalling the pilot episode, Day of the Dumpster,” I’d say.
“These pumpkins must be a reference to the Pumpkin Rapper,” I’d ponder with just enough self-awareness to know that I was risking becoming tedious. “We’re fighting Goldar on a rooftop because that’s where the first Goldar fight happens in the show,” I’d explain, pointing at the screen like Stillgar gesturing reverently towards Paul Atreides in Dune and suggesting that this boy must surely be the Lisan al-Gaib.
From the outset, Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind seemed like it had the potential to be the ultimate Power Rangers experience: a throwback beat ’em up that’s meant to feel like it was lifted right out of a 90s arcade (complete with a CRT filter that’s turned on by default).
The plot ties directly into Once and Always, the fun Netflix special that was released in 2023. Robo Rita, the revived, extra-evil version of Rita Repulsa, has traveled back in time to destroy the Rangers at the beginning of their careers. The homages to the original three seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fly thick and fast from there, ranging from obscure deep cuts to characters, locations and enemies you might hazily remember from your own childhood.
A personal connection
I come to this game not as a Power Rangers fan, but as someone who spent a solid 18 months working on a different Power Rangers game. I was the narrative lead on Power Rangers: Mighty Force, an idle game that released on mobile devices earlier this year; I researched an awful lot of series lore and wrote stories that touched upon 30 years of Ranger history, set in a version of the Mighty Morphin timeline where a rift in the Morphin Grid was sucking in Rangers and enemies from other series.
It was a lot of fun to write, but I always knew that the ultimate Power Rangers game would be one that gave you more direct control over the action. Games that really lean into the series’ unique strengths are few and far between. When Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind was first revealed, I was delighted to see that someone, somewhere, was making the Power Rangers game that always should have existed.
As someone with a fresh and strange relationship to Power Rangers, I think that Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind will, for the most part, please the series’ fans who have long waited for a (good) game that gave them the straightforward experience of playing as the Power Rangers and beating up a bunch of baddies.
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Yes, it’s another nostalgic play for folks who think back fondly on Mighty Morphin, and references to the many other Rangers and series that came out later are thin on the ground. But there’s a genuine reverence here to the spirit of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: the odd mix of corny and sincere, cool and dorky, that made the series such a hit.
The story of Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is (loosely) based around a handful of events from the original series, leading up to Tommy’s turn as the evil Green Ranger. The monsters you face off against tend to veer towards some of the goofier enemies from the original series – think Eye Guy, Crabby Cabbie, Chunky Chicken.
This is an impulse I understand completely, because the goofier characters are a lot of fun (Mighty Force goes hard on Pudgy Pig, my personal favourite). The story and dialogue show an understanding that as silly as Power Rangers can be, it’s better to lean in than to make fun of it.
So the game does well by fans in its aesthetic elements – the one thing that was missing, I thought, were the showers of sparks as you beat up enemies. But perhaps this is appropriate, because I also think that, judged by its merits as a retro scrolling beat-em-up, Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind definitely lacks a spark.
Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind may not be heavy on variety…
The game is quite repetitive, with few enemy types: fighting a lot of putty patrollers and Tenga warriors (big awful birds from the show’s third season). Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is light on combos and has no unlockable moves or abilities. The basic combat loop is satisfying, but not deep – I kept waiting for an extra wrinkle that never came, and felt that most levels felt interchangeable aside from the different backdrops. Going back to the first level after finishing the game, I was surprised to find how much it felt just like the last level.
The boss fights fare a little better, pitting you against iconic monsters in battles that require more thought and strategy. Figuring out their attack patterns and when to strike can be satisfying, but it’s in these more challenging moments that some of my other issues with Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind stood out the most.
The Rangers are a little too small on the screen for my liking, and directional movement feels extremely fiddly when you’re facing a boss that demands precision. Getting a boss to their stun state but then being unable to approach them properly because the 3D plane is difficult to judge can be very frustrating.
A few levels give you control over the Rangers’ Zords or put you on the back of a motorbike, for some retro-3D shooter levels where you run forward into the screen blasting everything in your path. While these levels can be enjoyable, I found that the retro styling made readability quite difficult, so I didn’t always know where I was taking damage from. The motorbike levels fare better than the Zords, which feels askew – the robots were usually the most exciting parts of the show.
When we were designing the launch build of Mighty Force, we weren’t able to incorporate the Zords – or the MegaZord, when they all form together into one giant robot – in any meaningful way. Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind has Megazord battles, but unfortunately they’re quite tedious. These battles play out in first-person, and you control your Megazord as you rush at the enemy, dodging their attacks and then (hopefully) landing a series of punches until eventually you can destroy them with your sword.
I found that these battles were arbitrary and frustrating – sometimes I managed to destroy the monster’s health bar quickly, and others I struggled hugely, but it seemed like pure luck whether a fight went one way or the other. If you’re in co-op, you’re made to simply take turns fighting the monster rather than controlling different parts of the Megazord, which is less enjoyable than battling together as Rangers.
But it’s worth playing with a pal (or a few)
It was difficult to play Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind without thinking about how wonderful and revitalising Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge was – a big, beautiful retro brawler that was reverent to the turtles, but also full of cool new twists. Rita’s Revenge plays things far safer. It’s a small game – it takes about three hours to beat – and definitely shines brighter if you have at least one other person to play with.
I wasn’t able to test the six-player co-op mode, but if you’re fortunate enough to have five friends who all love Power Rangers, and enough controllers on hand, it’s probably a very good time – plus, the game isn’t particularly difficult, so fans with very little game experience can still jump in.
Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is a sincere, often enjoyable game that will give long-time Power Rangers fans a pleasant burst of nostalgia. It cares about the franchise, and it nails the looks, the sounds, and the vibes of the series. As a beat-em-up, it’s serviceable – intermittently fun, if undercooked – but any fans starved for a halfway decent game that “gets” why Power Rangers has endured, could certainly do a lot worse.
Three stars: ★★★
Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Digital Eclipse
Release Date: 10 December 2024
A code for Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a ten-point scale.
