Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind Review – The '90s Sure Were Weird

When the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers emerged as many Americans’ first publicity to the favored Super Sentai sequence, it was exhausting to not really feel prefer it was driving the wave of Turtle-mania that outlined the early 1990s. After all, it was a band of color-coordinated heroes who traded light quips and used martial arts to dispatch countless faceless baddies. I watched MMPR on the time, however I used to be additionally simply cresting the age at which I felt just a little embarrassed by its simple camp. Three many years later, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind as soon as once more feels a bit prefer it’s driving the turtles’ coattails. TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge was a superb retro brawler throwback, and by comparability, Rita’s Rewind is a reasonably good retro brawler throwback, however one with a few of its personal particular charms–as nicely as its personal frustrations.Rita’s Rewind totally acknowledges the passage of time, even pinning down particular years. The unique Rangers are nonetheless combating evil in 2023, now in opposition to a mechanized Robo Rita–a well timed reference to the villain of the reunion film, 2023’s Power Rangers: Once and Always. But apparently overwhelmed by these Rangers who’ve many years of expertise, Robo Rita hatches a plan to return in time and workforce up together with her flesh-and-blood self. The modern-day Rangers say it is too harmful to comply with her by time and danger a paradox, so they simply need to hope their youthful selves are in a position to face up to the machinations of two Ritas.That locations Rita’s Rewind strictly on the 1993 timeline, which suggests it is the primary time the Rangers are encountering mainstays like Goldar and the Green Ranger. The solely actual distinction is that this time we see Rita Repulsa bickering with Robo Rita over technique. That self-aware setting makes this ripe for callbacks, like a number of the earliest and most iconic monsters in Power Rangers historical past. Your progress is split into phases, but in addition episodes, as the identical monster will usually span three phases to make an entire episodic story. It’s a cute hook that cleverly invokes nostalgia for the basic, campy TV present. At one level there’s even a intelligent homage to the trailblazing recreation Final Fight.Most of the phases are typical brawler fare, as your chosen Ranger takes on a wide range of Putties (and infrequently Tengas) with their very own themed assaults. Light-blue Putties, for instance, will run straight in the direction of you with a spike, however when you efficiently dodge, they will crash right into a wall and get dizzy for just a few seconds. None of the enemies are significantly vivid, however they’re constructed to overwhelm you with numbers. Your moveset is restricted to some fundamental assaults, jump-kicks, and dash-moves, however it’s typically sufficient to take care of the enemy hordes. For instances if you may get overwhelmed, there is a tremendous assault you’ll be able to unleash after amassing sufficient Power Coins to cost it, and it nearly all the time clears the sphere.The Rangers are nicely differentiated of their animations, which assist to precise their particular person personalities. The Black Ranger Zack’s down-smash assault breaks out his energy axe, for instance, whereas the Pink Ranger Kimberly shoots down like an arrow and strikes a pose like she simply caught the touchdown in a gymnastic occasion. It’s cute. That mentioned, their particular person assault energy, vary, and pace really feel successfully the identical. That makes selecting your Ranger extra a matter of non-public desire than technique. The tremendous assaults equally have completely different screen-filling results, however after they all clear the board, there’s not a useful distinction.The Rangers tackle a wide range of Putties.Sometimes brawler phases are interrupted by a Time Disrupter, a inexperienced gadget that may rewind the whole lot when you do not destroy it rapidly sufficient. That’s an ingenious little twist, since you must juggle coping with Putties whereas additionally making an attempt to break the Time Disrupter, otherwise you’ll need to battle the identical Putties over once more. But the Time Disrupter retains no matter harm you probably did, so you’ll be able to chip it down over a number of rounds. Sometimes this will even work to your advantage–once I misplaced a life whereas a Time Disrupter was lively, then time rewound and I bought the life again and carried out higher to maintain it.In between phases, you hang around on the native juice bar, the place you’ll be able to discuss just a little to different characters or play easy arcade video games. It’s a candy little diversion that helps promote the sensation of watching an previous Power Rangers episode.Most episodes culminate in a vehicle-chase section along with your particular person prehistoric-themed robotic, which in true Power Rangers style, often then transitions to an enormous MegaZord brawl. These are rendered with a retro Mode-7-esque impact and are styled like arcade shooters, firing your weapons to get non permanent power-ups to extra swiftly take down the enemy ships flying in the direction of you. The MegaZord battle is extra akin to a first-person Punch-Out, as you shift left or proper to dodge assaults after which wail in your super-sized enemy to cost up the Power Sword, which rains down from the sky to ship your ending strike.These phases appear supposed to interrupt up the pacing, however they’re usually irritating. The hit detection within the car segments is imprecise and exhausting to guage because of the Mode-7-like results, so it is simple to maintain a success and die or, worse, get crushed by a chunk of geometry. That means you lose a life. But not like the common brawler phases the place you proceed proper the place you left off, these begin you again at an usually arbitrary-feeling checkpoint. If that is earlier than a boss that you just had almost overwhelmed, it means you are ranging from scratch with the boss at full well being. It may be simple to lose all three allotted lives, which then prompts you to make use of a continue–a restricted useful resource on most issue ranges, which begins you again from the start of the entire stage.The large boss-finishing MegaZord segments really feel surprisingly off differently. Dodging is floaty and imprecise, and getting hit resets the meter to construct up your Power Sword. But there additionally would not appear to be any harm. If it is even attainable to die in these segments, I by no means noticed it. There are inexperienced, yellow, and purple lights within the MegaZord cockpit that appear supposed to indicate harm, however they by no means lit up. It’s attainable that these segments are supposed to be not possible to lose, and the one penalty is delay, as a result of it is imagined to really feel large and empowering. But it appears simply as attainable that, confronted with imprecise dodging that might make harm too irritating, the builders simply opted to make you invincible.Madame Woe reveals off her new coiffure.Like a basic brawler, Rita’s Rewind may be completed in just a few hours, and when you’re performed, there’s not a lot motive to replay. There is a bonus unlockable character that you would be able to play with, however they deal with principally equally to the opposite Rangers. The Rangers do not stage up with expertise, and there is not a foreign money or store to purchase bonuses or extras. The phases do have bonus aims, however it is not clear what finishing them offers you aside from bragging rights. There are a number of issue modes to check your expertise, after all, and there’s a Speed Run mode with an on-screen timer, if replaying the sport to prime your greatest time strikes your fancy.Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind feels gentle and disposable. It’s a largely pleasant brawler throwback that performs nicely and precisely captures the spirit of the unique old-school Power Rangers. The car segments may be irritating, however the bigger difficulty with MMPR is that it is ephemeral. Like watching an episode of Power Rangers on a lazy afternoon, you may have just a little campy enjoyable after which instantly neglect about it.