Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is an uber-meta blast from the past

Like many little girls in the late '90s, I always bagsied Pink Ranger. I'd intended to carry this childish insistence across to my Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind demo, but alas, Yellow Ranger had been chosen for me already. I shrug, pretending not to be a smidge disappointed as I sit down to play the upcoming Atari game with one of the developers. Soon enough, though, I'm having too much fun to give a hoot which color Ranger I am.

The game begins, and the moment I hear the opening notes of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers theme tune, a dormant memory awakens. Suddenly I'm four years old again, sitting on the sofa at my friend Iain's house after a long morning spent trying not to eat crayons at kindergarten. I've a Nutella sandwich in one hand, my Pink Ranger action figure clutched tight in the other, and I'm kicking my legs wildly to the music. It's been years since I've even thought about Power Rangers, but thanks to Digital Eclipse, I'm getting to relive one of my greatest childhood loves some 20 years later – all thanks to Rita's Rewind.

Be kind, rewind

Like all good pixel beat-'em-ups, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind captures that old-school arcade vibe perfectly. It's nothing short of what I'd expect from Digital Eclipse's parent company Atari, being of the best names in classic video game excellence, but something about this one feels even more special somehow.

Part of that reason, I think to myself as we smash through crates to collect coins and speed-boosting energy drinks, is how earnest it feels. Rita's Rewind is a game about the Power Rangers chasing their arch nemesis Rita Repulsa through the annals of time, right back to 1994 where she intends to wreak havoc. Here, they team up with her younger self to bring Rita down. This sounds a feat enough in itself, but here's the catch: the Rangers find themselves back in their teenage bodies, right where most of us will remember them.

It's certainly the case for me. As wave after wave of enemies come at us, suffering the might of my triple X-button combos, flying kicks, and grapple throws, I'm also trying to remember the last time I even thought about the Power Rangers. I express this to the developer in a way I hope sounds thoughtful instead of derivative, and he nods in earnest. The Power Rangers were a formative part of many a millennial childhood, and being thrown back to simpler times in a way that addresses the differences between then and now is part of what makes Rita's Rewind such a special game. 

But it also pokes fun at our rose-tinted memories of the iconic decade. Health pickups take the form of pizza icons, and as I mentioned earlier, there are a whole lot of energy drinks to crack open on my travels. You know, because that's all teenagers consumed back in the '90s. 

The halcyon days of peak Power Rangers popularity are easy to romanticize, and in Rita's Rewind, you get to live out that fantasy tenfold. I only got to play a brief half-hour of the beat-'em-up sections of the game, though I'm told that there's a lot more to it than side-scrolling action. In the trailer alone, we can see rail shooter gameplay, something bizarre happening on a rollercoaster, and a boss fight in what looks like a cramped metal elevator. There's more than meets the eye in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, but if you're liking even that much and are yearning for your next nostalgia fix, keep an eye out for its as-yet-unconfirmed 2024 launch date.

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