For years now, I have been wanting a Power Rangers game on consoles. Battle For The Grid was a fun one, but I’d prefer something that wasn’t of the fighting game genre. Finally my wishes have been answered, with a new beat ‘em up by Digital Eclipse. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind uses the TV special Once and Always as a base to return things to where they started.
From the first fight with Goldar, these rookie Rangers have to face off against putties and tenga warriors in classic beat ‘em up fashion. Attacking, dodging, and employing a few combos to put all these enemies out of action. There’s different moves to be aware of, with the putties helpfully colour-coded depending on their own attacks. The purple ones will defend on being hit, for instance, meaning an attack on their back will put them out of action.
Boss battles can be pretty hectic, with each employing their own attack patterns that change up when low on health. How the boss battles play out in a level also changes, with a few interesting battles taking place, including a multi-phase one throughout a level. I was loving which enemies came into play to face off against, and the interactions had with them.
With bosses defeated on the ground, it was zord time! Each particular Ranger has their own zord to control, though aside from the Pterodactyl being in flight, they all are pretty similar to control. Which can be said of each Ranger in ground-based gameplay, too. It is fun using the zords in these 3D on-rails shooter sections, since the individual zords never usually get time to shine before they form the megazord.
That megazord gameplay is in a first person view, dodging attacks and getting in some of my own to build up the power sword meter. When that is full, the sword is called and final attack performed to end the fight. However, too many hits reduces the meter, so it is once again a case of getting a feel for the attack patterns and striking when there’s a gap. These are enjoyable enough, and different to how they’ve been handled in past games.
Each episode is formed of multiple levels, each telling a story much like an episode of the show. Some of the episodes don’t feature the zords, which is an interesting choice. At the end of each episode, the Rangers demorph and return to the Juice Bar, where they can interact with Ernie, Bulk and Skull, as well as play a few arcade games that are unlocked as the story progresses. It nice to kick back here after some fighting, listening to Bulk bragging about how he saved the day.
There’s a lives system in place, so when they’ve all gone, it’s back to the beginning of the level. With normal and higher difficulty, there’s a limited number of continues before going right back to the beginning of the story. It also feels like normal expects you have at least one other person along for the ride, as I’ve found that later levels can be too hectic running solo.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is a fun time, full of nostalgia for any fans of the original Power Rangers series. The rendition of the original theme is ace, with the characters represented well here. While the gameplay can be frustrating at times, it’s still a fun time. As such, it is one I can recommend. I’m hoping this can be the start of many more games for the franchise.
Images Taken From:
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind | Nintendo Switch [Handheld]
