Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Right, let’s get this out of the way early, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind sadly isn’t very good. I know, I know, I’m as disappointed as you are as this felt like it would be the second coming of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge just with Power Rangers – who are probably, maybe, just as awesome as our friendly neighbourhood heroes in a half-shell. A 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up with retro arcade visuals and shoot ‘em up sections, I mean, what could go wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot.

First off though, in terms of what it does get right, Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind absolutely nails the aesthetic. The opening theme-music drips nostalgia and superbly sets the tone, giving you all of the retro feels. For people of a certain age, this is your childhood, but in 2024. Even better, the game itself has the sheen of a coin-up arcade screen overlaying the visuals, really cementing the sense of playing this game in your local arcade – you know, the one that no longer exists.

The chunky pixellated characters have a lot of charm, the Rangers themselves ninja flipping smoothly across the levels, whilst the never-ending horde of Putties you face are decent, if rather bland, punching bags. Thankfully, the look of the bosses is much more like it, correctly channelling the Saturday-morning TV shoddiness of the original much-loved Power Rangers series.

Smartly, the game is subdivided into a TV episode structure. Your team of Rangers face reams of goons, before battling a boss who, of course, runs off. You give chase in your Dinozord, blasting away in shooting sections that honour the almost-3D sequences of Sega’s classic game Afterburner. Then the boss gets biggified and your Dinozords combine to build the mech-like Megazord, resulting in a ginormous scrap.

Sadly, once you get to actually playing Power Rangers: Rita’s Revenge, things fall apart pretty quickly. Beat ‘em up sections are dull and pedestrian, with lacklustre collision detection proving a