When the Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers emerged as many People’ first publicity to the favored Tremendous Sentai collection, it was onerous to not really feel prefer it was driving the wave of Turtle-mania that outlined the early Nineteen Nineties. In any case, it was a band of color-coordinated heroes who traded light quips and used martial arts to dispatch infinite faceless baddies. I watched MMPR on the time, however I used to be additionally simply cresting the age at which I felt a little bit embarrassed by its simple camp. Three a long time later, Mighty Morphin Energy 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 wonderful retro brawler throwback, and by comparability, Rita’s Rewind is a fairly good retro brawler throwback, however one with a few of its personal particular charms–as effectively as its personal frustrations.
Rita’s Rewind totally acknowledges the passage of time, even pinning down particular years. The unique Rangers are nonetheless preventing evil in 2023, now towards a mechanized Robo Rita–a well timed reference to the villain of the reunion film, 2023’s Energy Rangers: As soon as and All the time. However apparently overwhelmed by these Rangers who’ve a long time of expertise, Robo Rita hatches a plan to return in time and group up along with her flesh-and-blood self. The trendy-day Rangers say it is too harmful to observe her via time and danger a paradox, so they simply must hope their youthful selves are in a position to stand 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 Inexperienced Ranger. The one 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 among the earliest and most iconic monsters in Energy Rangers historical past. Your progress is split into levels, but in addition episodes, as the identical monster will usually span three levels to make an entire episodic story. It is a cute hook that cleverly invokes nostalgia for the traditional, campy TV present. At one level there’s even a intelligent homage to the trailblazing recreation Ultimate Struggle.
A lot of the levels are typical brawler fare, as your chosen Ranger takes on quite a lot of Putties (and infrequently Tengas) with their very own themed assaults. Mild-blue Putties, for instance, will run straight in the direction of you with a spike, however in the event you efficiently dodge, they’re going to crash right into a wall and get dizzy for a couple of seconds. Not one of the enemies are significantly brilliant, however they’re constructed to overwhelm you with numbers. Your moveset is proscribed to a couple fundamental assaults, jump-kicks, and dash-moves, but it surely’s typically sufficient to cope with the enemy hordes. For occasions while you would possibly get overwhelmed, there is a tremendous assault you’ll be able to unleash after amassing sufficient Energy Cash to cost it, and it nearly all the time clears the sector.
The Rangers are effectively differentiated of their animations, which assist to specific 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 is cute. That stated, their particular person assault power, vary, and velocity really feel successfully the identical. That makes selecting your Ranger extra a matter of private choice than technique. The tremendous assaults equally have completely different screen-filling results, however after they all clear the board, there’s not a practical distinction.
Generally brawler levels are interrupted by a Time Disrupter, a inexperienced machine that can rewind all the things in the event you do not destroy it rapidly sufficient. That is an ingenious little twist, since you need to juggle coping with Putties whereas additionally attempting to wreck the Time Disrupter, otherwise you’ll must battle the identical Putties over once more. However the Time Disrupter retains no matter injury you probably did, so you’ll be able to chip it down over a number of rounds. Generally 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 levels, you hang around on the native juice bar, the place you’ll be able to discuss a little bit to different characters or play easy arcade video games. It is a candy little diversion that helps promote the sensation of watching an previous Energy Rangers episode.
Most episodes culminate in a vehicle-chase phase together with your particular person prehistoric-themed robotic, which in true Energy Rangers vogue, normally 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 Energy Sword, which rains down from the sky to ship your ending strike.
These levels appear meant to interrupt up the pacing, however they’re typically irritating. The hit detection within the automobile segments is imprecise and onerous to evaluate due to the Mode-7-like results, so it is simple to maintain a success and die or, worse, get crushed by a chunk of geometry. Meaning you lose a life. However in contrast to the common brawler levels the place you proceed proper the place you left off, these begin you again at an typically arbitrary-feeling checkpoint. If that is earlier than a boss that you just had almost crushed, it means you are ranging from scratch with the boss at full well being. It may be straightforward to lose all three allotted lives, which then prompts you to make use of a continue–a restricted useful resource on most problem ranges, which begins you again from the start of the entire stage.
The massive boss-finishing MegaZord segments really feel surprisingly off another way. Dodging is floaty and imprecise, and getting hit resets the meter to construct up your Energy Sword. However there additionally does not appear to be any injury. If it is even doable to die in these segments, I by no means noticed it. There are inexperienced, yellow, and crimson lights within the MegaZord cockpit that appear meant to indicate injury, however they by no means lit up. It is doable that these segments are supposed to be inconceivable to lose, and the one penalty is delay, as a result of it is purported to really feel massive and empowering. But it surely appears simply as doable that, confronted with imprecise dodging that might make injury too irritating, the builders simply opted to make you invincible.
Like a traditional brawler, Rita’s Rewind will be completed in a couple of hours, and when you’re performed, there’s not a lot cause to replay. There’s a bonus unlockable character you could 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 levels do have bonus goals, but it surely is not clear what finishing them offers you apart from bragging rights. There are a number of problem modes to check your expertise, in fact, and there’s a Pace Run mode with an on-screen timer, if replaying the sport to prime your finest time strikes your fancy.
Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers: Rita’s Rewind feels gentle and disposable. It is a largely satisfying brawler throwback that performs effectively and precisely captures the spirit of the unique old-school Energy Rangers. The automobile segments will be irritating, however the bigger difficulty with MMPR is that it is ephemeral. Like watching an episode of Energy Rangers on a lazy afternoon, you will have a little bit campy enjoyable after which instantly neglect about it.
