Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind Hands-On Preview

If you had asked me whether the Power Rangers got their own coin-operated arcade cabinet in the '80s and '90s, I would have said yes, absolutely... Right? Well, that's actually wrong. The varied-color superheroes never got their own arcade game like the Simpsons and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did.

But, the team over at Digital Eclipse (the same folks that did the TMNT Cowabunga Collection and the Disney Classic Games Collection) are righting that wrong by making a classic, '90s inspired beat-em-up starring the Power Rangers, and while Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind isn't going to win any GOTY awards or anything, it's shaping up to be a fun little romp that'll only take you about two to three hours to complete.

The Best War Games got to play a demo of the game on the show floor at PAX West 2024 and went through one of the stages, which ended with a battle against Goldar (who, according to the Fandom wiki on Power Rangers, is a general serving under Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd).

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By Rhenn Taguiam

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind Is as '90s as It Gets

And being a video game that only takes two hours to beat, Rita's Rewind is pretty straightforward. You'll control one of the five Rangers (six if you count the final unlockable green Ranger) and go stage by stage, moving from left to right to brawl your way through Rita's forces. There are combos to pull off, and each Ranger has a unique special ability that can be inflicted on foes once the bar underneath their health fills up. It's crucial to pick the right moments to activate this special power; use it at the wrong time, and you'll miss the opportunity to completely wipe away a full screen of enemies.

Each Power Ranger has their own flashy technique that can be activated, but something about the combat did bug me. Two things, actually. The first might've been an issue with the demo kiosk and how it was set up, but the controller input was lagging pretty badly, making it difficult for me to hit enemies accurately and do my part alongside my three teammates.

The second issue is that each Power Ranger seems to have the same regular attacks. Besides the special move they can pull off, picking one Ranger over the other has no pros or cons. The Simpsons Arcade Game stands out in my mind as being one of the coolest multiplayer coin-operated games out there, and that's mostly because of the varied combat choices you get for the roster. Bart can attack with his skateboard; Lisa can reach distant enemies with her dangerous jump rope; and then you have Homer and Marge, who use fists and a vacuum cleaner, respectively. From what we can tell, you can kind of pick whatever Ranger you want, and it doesn't change much of what happens during gameplay.

Something that I didn't get to try during the demo, but it seems like the cooler parts of Rita's Rewind are the Megazord fighting sequences and the driving/shooting sections. Because this game was made in 2024 and not 20+ years ago, the developers have more power to work with, allowing them to create these visually compelling sequences where you're suddenly in control of a roller coaster ride, shooing down enemies or running across a valley, avoiding attacks. It's a nice change of pace from the basic "left to right moving screens" of enemies to repeatedly fight.

And, as I mentioned, there are first-person segments that put you in control of the Megazord. How that works with other players is yet to be seen, but the team seems very excited about this feature.

I know it seems like I was dragging the game a bit when talking about the lack of a unique moveset, but at the end of the day, I was having a lot of fun playing with three other players in real time. Whenever someone activated their special move to knock out everyone on the screen, we cheered that Ranger on. If someone accidentally missed a jump from a rooftop and fell off the stage, it made us erupt in nothing but laughter. And even beating Goldar at the end of the demo was a blast and just brought out the kid side of us.

I think with the collectibles hidden in the stages, varied levels, and the easily approachable gameplay, anyone can pick Rita's Rewind up and have some fun with it, whether it's with young ones, introducing them to the Power Rangers for the first time, or PR veterans that know the lore inside and out.

It's a little too early to tell if Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind will blow people's skirts up and make waves, especially since 2D beat-em-ups are fairly common these days, but I think there's a chance for this one to be an easy recommendation once it comes out.

As of the time of writing, there's no release date yet, but the team hopes to put it out by the end of 2024.

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