Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind: The definitive MMPR beat 'em up

As a lifelong Super Sentai/Power Rangers fan, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind is exactly what I hoped it would be. Sure, it’s a beat ‘em up game, which is pretty hard to innovate these days, but Digital Eclipse sure managed to do it. It’s not a game that overstays its welcome; instead, it brings exactly what I want: Putties to pound, familiar faces in the boss pool, and a few neat surprises.

Revealed during Summer Game Fest 2024, it has a gameplay style that feels familiar, with the TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge release, but is very much not a copy of that. The stage designs are unique to this game, as is the combat. From the graphics to the dialogue, it all feels right.

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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind gives fans what they deserved from the original beat ‘em ups

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind is an exceptionally fun game, and in a way, it makes up for the mediocre games from the 90s. While MMPR: The Movie fighting game was fun, as was the SEGA Genesis fighting game — the beat ‘em ups of the 90s were incredibly mediocre. Sure, some of it was platform limitations, but not that much of it. This game is both retro and modern at the same time.

What could be more fun than teaming up to stomp on some Putty Patrollers? (Image via Digital Eclipse)

The trailers already show the main thrust of the story of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind: time shenanigans, two Rita Repulsas working together to conquer the Earth, and more importantly, defeat the Power Rangers. Between Rita and Robo Rita, that should be easy — if they can figure out how teamwork works.

That leads me to one of my favorite parts of Rita’s Rewind — you can team up to do some truly fantastic combos. Throw a Putty at another player and they can knock them up, and another player can do rapid jumpkicks to keep juggling an enemy in the air for ridiculous amounts of time.

The actual moment-to-moment gameplay is so much fun. Controlling the ‘Zords was easy, as they offer cool, Contra-style vertical stages. All of the gameplay styles, including beat ‘em up, shoot ‘em up, and Megazord battles, felt different and certainly fun. Teamwork was the name of the game in all the modes.

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The gameplay design of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind is familiar but satisfying

Rooftops, Rollercoasters, nothing's off the table! (Image via Digital Eclipse)

The UI for the character health/super meter will feel familiar if you played TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, but that’s okay — it was a solid UI that told you all the stuff you needed to know. Both shows/franchises have a lot in common: Ridiculous over-the-top villains, generic henchmen to flood the screen with, and “Teenagers with attitudes” working together to save the day. Instead of Foot Soldiers that come in various flavors and colors, you have the Putty Patrollers.

Much like the TMNT game, the Putties come in different types, some of them being more annoying than others. However, what surprised me was the inclusion of the Tenga — these originally debuted in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie as Tengu Warriors. They would show up in Season 3 as well.

Honestly, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, I was just surprised to see that kind of shoutout. This game was a serious tribute to the original show, and it also added depth to the rank-and-file dorks that we were beating up.

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Not everything was quite Morphinomenal

The Time Disruptors were a neat idea to keep things on theme, but it sure could be frustrating (Image via Digital Eclipse)

For the overwhelming majority of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind, the gameplay was exceptionally fun. In local co-op, there were a few moments where the gameplay slowed down quite a bit. This was likely due to it being a four-player local co-op and having a ton of enemies on the screen at once.

Now, it only happened once or twice, but it was enough to remember it. There were also some little things in the ‘Zord stages, where we would die and suddenly have no lives left, without it being especially clear what or where we died.

There's also the nature of the time rewinds. Periodically in a stage, Putty Patrollers will carry a huge tube onto the battlefield, which, if not destroyed in time, rewinds time. In my experience, it was almost always when the screen was filled with Putties.

This, in turn, led to it taking several attempts, even with four people, to break one. I don't think it's a bad system, but it could've used a slightly longer timer. Other than that, the game felt satisfying.

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The presentation of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind was flawless

It's the little touches that made this experience so enjoyable (Image via Digital Eclipse)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind expertly recreates locations like the Angel Grove Youth Center and characters like Bulk and Skull. The characters spoke like I would expect them to, including lines like “Does anybody speak Billy?” making me chuckle.

The music was spot-on, and the graphics had a retro flair but were certainly modern. Much like TMNT, some collectibles reference the classic episodes, which were certainly fun to seek out.

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In conclusion

It's not all side-scrolling in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind (Image via Digital Eclipse)

I’m a long-time fan of both Power Rangers and Super Sentai, so I was over the moon to see this game revealed. I played all the old games, even the Chojin Sentai Jetman Famicom game. The vast majority of Power Rangers games were mediocre at best and miserable at worst. For the most part, they weren't treated with the care they deserved. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind most definitely was.

The voice actors were fantastic, and the levels/experiences felt like they were designed by people who either loved the series too or did a significant amount of homework. It’s fun from start to finish, and if you’re a fan of the classic MMPR era, this game is one you can’t afford to pass up.

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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind

Fans of the classic Power Rangers episodes won't want to miss out on this beat 'em up (Image via Sportskeeda)

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
• Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 (Code provided by Digital Eclipse)
• Release Date: December 10, 2024
• Developer: Digital Eclipse
• Publisher: Digital Eclipse