Mighty Morphin Power Rangers! I guarantee you that pretty much everyone who grew up in the 1990s knows the name and likely tried some martial arts on their friends at school. Given the franchise has also spawned 22 different TV series, three feature-length movies and 27 video games to its name it is highly unlikely that this franchise has passed under the radar of even those living under a rock.

So, here we are then, the latest Mighty Morphin Power Rangers adventure, Rita’s Rewind. Described as a retro-style beat-em-up in the vein of classic 90’s arcade games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons (?) and X-Men. I’ve said it before and I shall say it again for those in the back, retro-style descriptions always cause me to pause; many retro-inspired titles have come and gone, and not many get the recipe right. Is this the one that does?

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind features a kind of enhanced SNES-style aesthetic. This is a little difficult to explain, but it’s not just the 16-bit look; it has more to do with the soft colours, controls and sound. Aside from the usual side-scrolling beat-em-up affair, this also features a mix of both Mode-7 style (a graphics mode on the SNES that allows background layers to be rotated and scaled) sections as well as SEGA Super Scroller (think Space Harrier, Outrun) type sections.

So, in many ways, this title sells itself as a beat-em-up, but it’s really a grab bag of different genres packed into one game. In fact, one could probably have split this up into about three or four different games and sold them separately. The phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none” rings a bit of a bell for me here. It was cool playing a game that threw all kinds of challenges at me, but, it was not always for the better.

It didn’t take long for that nostalgia for Power Rangers to come rushing back. But with interesting effects, like, back in the day, my favourite was the Red Ranger (Jason? the Jock and had the T-Rex) but these days I identify more with the Blue Ranger (Billy, the Geek and rolling the Triceratops) funny how we change over time huh? Anyway, with Billy locked in, I continued on.

The side-scrolling sections are pretty much without exception excellent. Great music, varied visuals and enemies to fight. However, it does feel like this game is definitely designed for the full 5-player (everyone choose your ranger!) experience. Playing by myself, I did feel like the enemy numbers weren’t scaled to match the number of human players, and I frequently felt overwhelmed.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind features a mish-mash of genres. The racing/chase/shooting style levels are fun to begin with, but also problematic. The left stick is used both for direction but also targeting. I found these sections to be exciting but imprecise with hitboxes. Furthermore, in some of these stages, you need to navigate jumps or meet instant death. There is a difference between difficult, tricky and lucky jumps – not a fan of the latter.

Fortunately, should you survive some of the better or worse ‘driving’ sections, the next minute we join together with our fellow rangers and get to pilot our MegaZord in a one-on-one battle with the boss. Interestingly, these sections take place from a first-person view, much like Super Punch-Out, or any first-person fighting game with limited buttons and abilities. This is initially a bit of a thrill and a nice surprise, but quickly starts to feel like a gimmick and more of a mini-game than anything.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is a bit of a mixed bag but I cannot fault it for its ambition and it almost pulls it off. The soundtrack is composed by Sean Bialo, a.k.a. CosmicGem who also scored Penny’s Big Break Away and Double Dragon Gaiden and is excellent all the way through.

The gameplay, which jumps between brutally difficult and bordering on unfair, depending on which particular genre any particular stage is aiming at, is most of the time enjoyable and I always appreciated the hand-drawn SNES style graphics and the different effect treatments of the varied styles of stages.