Some of the best graphics of the year can be found in this loving homage to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and early 90s video games.

It can’t be easy for toymakers like Hasbro, when it often seems that adults are more interested in their wares than kids. Hasbro owns a variety of companies and franchises, including Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast, as well as everything from Transformers to My Little Pony. But after the failure of the recent Transformers One animated movie, they announced they’re going to stop funding new films themselves and instead focus on games and interactive media.

It’s unclear whether this new game is part of that push, since it must have been commissioned some time ago, but they also released a new G.I. Joe game in September – which we haven’t played but doesn’t seem to have reviewed well – that shares a very similar approach. That being, what if both franchises got a big budget arcade game in the early 90s… rather than the cheaply made console cash-ins that actually happened at the time.

As much as we love Transformers, we have no interest in either G.I. Joe or Power Rangers, but the first trailer for Rita’s Rewind immediately grabbed our attention, because it looked like a long lost sibling to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles scrolling beat ‘em-ups crossed with sprite-scaling Sega coin-ops like OutRun and After Burner. Both of which are things we very much are interested in.

Despite being inherently the most shallow of genres, the scrolling beat ‘em-up has had a minor renaissance in recent years, via indie game such as Streets Of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. They often feature gorgeous pixel artwork, but none of them have ever found a way to evolve or modernise the gameplay. It’s not clear any of them are really trying either, since their primary appeal is to nostalgia, but by arriving slightly late to the party Rita’s Rewind has less excuse for not trying to move things on.

The plot, such as we understand it, involves a robotic Rita Repulsa travelling back in time from 2023 (we guess the game must’ve got delayed somewhere along the line) to help out her organic self and take on the less experienced Power Rangers of 1993. Considering the obvious effort that has gone into the game, we’re sure it’s filled with Easter eggs and references to the franchise’s 30+ year existence but those are lost on us.

Whether Shredder’s Revenge was a direct inspiration for the game is unclear but in gameplay terms this is very similar, but then you could say the same for most beat ‘em-ups. You pick the Power Ranger of your choice and then start walking slowly from left to right across the screen, punching and kicking every cannon fodder enemy that comes your way. You’ve also got a dash attack and a super move, that you have to collect coins to use, but that’s pretty much it in terms of gameplay.

The game has up to four-player co-op and while the Rangers are all very nicely distinguished in terms of animation none of their attacks actually do anything different, they just look unique. Even the super moves are basically just smart bombs, and despite the change in visuals they all have the same effect, no matter which flavour of Power Ranger you’re playing as.

The only unusual element is a Time Disrupter crystal which you have to destroy within a time limit, or it rewinds a section of the level, but this is neither as frustrating as it sounds nor as interesting as developer Digital Eclipse probably hoped.

At this point, you’re probably feeling our lack of enthusiasm and while we’d be a lot more excited if it was Transformers rather than Power Rangers, and we recognised all the characters and secret references, we like to think we’d be dispassionate enough to admit that the gameplay is still very shallow and repetitive.

The beat ‘em-up sections do look great, there’s no doubting that, and we enjoyed them purely for the artistry of it all. That and noting all the times the game pays homage to other classic scrolling beat ‘em-ups of yesteryear, from The Simpsons arcade game to The Adventures Of Batman & Robin on the SNES – creating two layers of nostalgia for the price of one.

But what really caught our attention in the initial trailer was the faux sprite-scaling sections (which would’ve been largely outdated by 1993, but who’s counting). Despite their popularity at the time, this is an aspect of arcade gaming that very rarely gets referenced by modern indie titles and that’s a crying shame given how beautiful the sequences are in Rita’s Rewind.

These involve a variety of into-the-screen shooting galleries, as you ride the city streets gunning down enemies on a motorcycle or are literally stuck on-the-rails on a roller coaster. Nothing’s any more complex or nuanced than the beat ‘em-up levels but since they don’t last as long, and are nicely varied in style, they come across as more interesting – even though the action feels quite imprecise and random at times.

Every few ‘episodes’ you’ll enter battle controlling your own particular robot dinosaur and once you’ve softened up the bad guy (which has invariably grown to Godzilla size) you combine to form the MegaZord, at which point the gameplay morphs into a riff on Punch-Out!! as you punch and dodge the giant monster.

This also looks amazing. We really can’t shower enough praise on the retro style visuals, especially as they’re actually quite a bit better than could actually have been achieved at the time, but there’s still nothing to the action and the novelty doesn’t stop the whole game seeming highly repetitive, despite the fact that it barely lasts three hours. A running time that is not helped by an unusually large price tag and very little replayability.

We don’t like to disparage something that has clearly had so much love poured into it, but this either needed to be four times the length, and with at least some attempt to add depth and nuance, or simply a lot cheaper. It’s neither though, which means even Power Rangers and retro graphics fans will have to think twice before indulging in this well-meaning but insubstantial punnet of memberberries.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £28.99
Publisher: Digital Eclipse
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Release Date: 10th November 2024
Age Rating: 12

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