As an elder-millennial, there were a few unmistakeable hallmarks of my childhood. My brothers and I played outside until the lights came on and drank from the hose because we weren’t allowed in the house. We watched Saturday morning cartoons while eating a giant bowl of cereal. No one lived and died by their cell phone…just their tamagotchi. And yes, we watched The Power Rangers with so much devotion, it was practically our religion. So when I got the opportunity to play Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, I knew I had to grab my power morpher and buckle in.
The older I get, the more I’m convinced that nostalgia is the love language of my generation. Movies, tv shows, and video games increasingly reach out to millennials with the pieces of our childhood knowing that we won’t be able to stop ourselves from opening our wallets. Rita’s Rewind is no exception. While the story begins in 2023, it quickly rewinds to 1993 and we find our heroes at the point of the pilot episode when Zordon tells Alpha 5 to recruit human teenagers with attitude.
After the stage is set, Rita’s Rewind leans heavily on established Power Ranger lore. The Rangers must fight putties and an assortment of Rita’s monsters right out of the tv show. They even fight Tenga Warriors. Though the Tenga Warriors weren’t introduced to the tv show until season 3, it was cleverly explained that they were here from the future.
Beat-Em-Up in Angel Grove
Rita’s Rewind is primarily a beat-em-up arcade style game but there are actually four very different level types. The main beat-em-up style that played like TMNT, Streets of Rage, or BattleToads features the rangers in their suits going through different settings in Angel Grove fighting putties. In the tv show, these fights almost always started in street clothes and eventually it was Morphin’ Time! A slight departure from that, Rita’s Rewind never features street clothes fighting and morphing happens without the rangers shouting out their dinosaur familiar to remind us who they are.
The putties are such a big part of the game that I was afraid after the first level that I was going to get real sick and tired of fighting putties. Rita’s Rewind anticipated the slog of fighting the same enemy over and over and in turn added some fun and variety to the mix. Levels found later in the Rita’s Rewind feature putties that are part of the circus and dressed like clowns or putties that are part of a gang.
While they had all the fighting ability of the dancers in West Side Story and would never be considered for a real gang, it was fun to fight someone who didn’t look and act exactly like every other putty before them. To that end, putties not native to the Power Ranger lore like putties armed with bombs or sais also made an appearance. My favorite non-traditional putty was a giant putty that looked like the amalgamation of 3 different putties into one cursed body. They were more difficult to defeat and I wish the Rangers had fought them in the tv show.
Making Rita’s Monster Grow
After fighting my way through putties, I would inevitably fight boss monsters like Goldar, Chunky Chicken, and Eye Guy. The boss fights in these levels reminded me of fights from Streets of Rage or Golden Axe in that they were difficult and each boss had its own unique style and move set. After fighting them in the streets, Rita would inevitably make her monster grow and it was time to call on the power of the dinozords!
The first fight in the zords felt more like a chase. In my own zord, I moved through a level that felt a lot like playing Starfox with enemies protecting green crystal mining operations that Rita was conducting. Unfortunately, the explanation for why Rita was mining green crystals ended up being glossed over and very shallow focusing instead on the gameplay. As a story guy, I spent most of my playthrough wondering why I was stopping her from mining green crystals even though my knowledge of Power Rangers gave me some suspicions.
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The zord levels like this were fun and different and reminded me of motorcycle levels in similar games. Unfortunately, sometimes the initial zord levels were replaced with completely unnecessary actual motorcycle levels. As short as the campaign is in Rita’s Rewind, I would have highly preferred all of the chase levels to be in the zords. They were far more interesting and complex than chasing the bad guys on a color coordinated motorcycle.
After the chase, the zords come together as the Megazord and for the first time in Power Ranger video game history, players get the chance to play as the Megazord from inside the cockpit. This historic level design should have been the brightest spot in an otherwise formulaic video game. Unfortunately, the game play requires that players go through a tedious and entirely not-fun minigame to charge the power sword before using it against Rita’s monster. Give me a zord vs monster fighting game style level. It would have been so much better.
A Few Weird Choices
While overall I had a really fun time with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, there were a few choices that left me scratching my head. Tommy Oliver, the green ranger, was always my favorite character. He becomes unlockable after beating the main campaign. In fact, he is the penultimate boss character in line with his story being one of redemption in the tv show. Unfortunately, due to the fact that he appears late in an already short campaign and isn’t unlockable until after the final boss, I felt like he was completely wasted as a playable character. I had fun but not so much fun that I’m running back to play it again just to use the green ranger. Also, keeping him unlockable restricts the 6 player co-op that most platforms offer to 5 until after the main campaign has been beaten.
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Another weird choice for me was Rita’s Rewind not including Lord Zedd or his variety of putties in any way. While Lord Zedd wasn’t featured in season 1 of the tv show, it would have been very easy to include him in much the same way the Tenga Warriors were included into the story. Having another putty variety and Lord Zedd and his monsters available could have extended the game and the nostalgia.
Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong - I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The 8 year old in me sitting around watching the Power Rangers on tv had been awakened. The 10 year old playing in the sprinklers with my mom while she pretended to be Rita Repulsa was sitting right there in my recliner. The 30 year old introducing my toddler to the original Power Rangers was fully engaged. Now pushing 40, I am certain of only a few things in life and one of those things is that you’re never too old to love the Power Rangers. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is available now on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
