Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is almost exactly what you want it to be. An arcadey beat-'em-up that brings back memories of the show, this has one or two rough edges but ultimately delivers a potent dose of fun.
Playing as any of the original Rangers (plus the Green Ranger after completing the story once), you and up to three friends must defend Angel Grove after the villainous Rita Repulsa teams up with her future self. What follows is a short but entertaining series of varied stages, with most of them having you beating up putty patrollers and other recognisable baddies.
The core combat is very basic, with a simple combo, dodge, and all the typical beat-'em-up staples you'd expect. It's always fun wailing on various enemies, but unfortunately we ran into issues where some inputs weren't registering consistently. This mostly affected dodging, leading to a lot of frustrating deaths.
On difficulties Normal and above, a limited Continues system means that once you run out of them, that run is over, with no means of earning more lives or Continues. Combined with difficulty spikes on one or two of the bosses, it feels a little too harsh. Fortunately, the easy difficulty provides unlimited Continues.
In addition to classic beat-'em-up stages and boss fights, the game changes things up with shoot-'em-up style vehicle segments, as well as first-person fisticuffs when you pilot the Megazord. The variety keeps the campaign trucking along nicely. Along with the old school presentation, lots of easter eggs for fans, and an energetic soundtrack, it all comes together to offer up a rollicking good time.
While the issues we have with the combat bring it down a bit, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind ultimately succeeds in delivering a nostalgic dose of fun that fans of the franchise are going to love. It's not the best beat-'em-up in recent years, but its clear reverence for the source material, variety of stages, and well-pitched presentation make it a real feel-good game.
Comments 25
Anyone remember the great Genesis power ranger game? Great game. Might pick this one up when it goes down in price
I’ll get this one once it’s on a 50% off sale. The price is just too darn high on this one, even if I know I’ll have fun with it
"A limited Continues system means that once you run out of them, that run is over, with no means of earning more lives or Continues...it feels a little too harsh."
Tell me you've only played modern games without telling me you've only played modern games.
@Americansamurai1 I do. My brother and I played that game religiously as kids. It was fantastic.
@Kraven would love to see them rerelease it like they did with the tmnt collection.
Looks right up my street, especially with limited continues as this style of games benefits from limited lives. A definite purchase for me
@RZ-Atom
Those are things that I would consider the bad part of older games that should have stayed in the past.
@FingerShot Continues allow you to learn higher difficulties within the game and in turn get better at it. Games that have no negative repercussions for user knowledge, mistakes, or masteries aren't a challenge.
I personally don't want a game that I can just walk through. Luckily, players who are unable to complete the game on normal or higher can drop down to easy if they don't have the skill to complete a game on normal with a finite number of continues.
Edit: This is a troll hashtag, and I'm clearly kidding: #getgood
@RZ-Atom Typically, games with limited lives or continues will give you ways to earn more, by collecting coins or finding 1-ups or rewarding skilled play. This doesn't have any of that, so if and when you run out of continues, your run is done, and you aren't afforded the opportunity to try and extend it. It just struck me as a little too restrictive.
@RZ-Atom Why would i want a terrible thing back? And don't give me this nonsense yeah get good. I can understand this restriction in the past because the games were short but in this age why should this be considered a good point.
@Quintumply Some titles did indeed give you an opportunity to get additional lives or continues, yes. However, this game allows you to drop difficulties to get unlimited.
The game design is to replicate design from 90s titles, the target audience for Rita's Rewind. I see no problem when there are options for players.
@Flaming_Kaiser There's no restriction, drop down to easy. Nothing wrong with that.
Very odd that there's no way to earn additional lives. Even arcade games usually have scoring systems that earn you extra lives.
"Cons
These are pros for gamers like me who grew up in Arcade era.
For me, difficulty spikes means:
@RZ-Atom Once you choose a difficulty you are locked in, so if you decide you want to play on easy for the unlimited retries, you've got to start again.
It's not a long game, so it isn't the end of the world, but I still think the inability to earn yourself more attempts in the higher difficulties is too much. At least the easy mode is there, but again, I found the difficulty modes too rigidly designed. More power to anybody who's looking for that tough challenge, of course, but I believe there are friendlier ways to achieve that.
@Quintumply They should add a warning when selecting difficulty, if they don't already. I would sour some if the difference between difficulties are not known to the player.
I've already been looking forward to this, but it's extra cool to see another game that has real game overs
@waveboy I just clicked the reviewer profile and his photo looks really young like he's half of my age. Like you said, big chance he's a Gen-Z who never taste Arcade games or dislike games that offers difficulty spikes and challenges.
As for the rest, i fully agreed with everything you said 🤝
I'm gonna put this game on my buying list. I never say no for a good and challenging beat em up game. Heck, i think we need more of them right now.
Used to love watching this show when I was a Teenager. It always made me laugh quite hard the way with every landing punch or weapon strike whether it was the Rangers getting hit or their enemies, there were so many explosions and I loved it.
Definitely going to give this game a try.
@Americansamurai1 I do remember it. Used to play it with my friend after school.
@PuppetMaster I'm 34
To be clear, I have absolutely no problem with, and in fact very much relish, a game presenting a challenge, and I completely understand the old arcade sensibilities you and others are describing. However, with all that in mind, it's my opinion that the lack of ways to earn more continues is a step too far — especially when combined with ill-placed difficulty spikes and inconsistent input recognition.
I too feel it’s mostly a negative that you can’t earn more lives or continues by getting a good score; rewarding your good gameplay.
It’s not a deal breaker but I think I’ve played more games that go that route than this one.
Can’t wait to play it on switch!
How can you have button inputs that don't always register? That is THE major flaw...especially in a brawler game. Other than that, that's gonna sit very well next to the TNMT on the shelf
Removed - unconstructive feedback
I hate that super sentai games are pretty much dead in Japan.
Anyone try the Konami code?
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