Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind review – go go retro gaming!
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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.
![[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind screenshot]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233501274-9fbf.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
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.
![[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind screenshot]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233501142-a4aa.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
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.
