Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Team Talks Going Retro

Nostalgia is something that is almost overflowing in the gaming industry right now. After all, remasters and remakes are coming out of every corner of the gaming industry, and gamers are, at times, a bit overwhelmed by it. However, there are exceptions to the rule, like when nostalgia is used to make something fresh. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind might look like just a 16-bit beat ’em-up title, but the team at Digital Extreme wanted to go far beyond that and even made a story that tied a recent Netflix special to the original legendary TV show. The team is going full-tilt with this, and they want fans to know it.

On the PlayStation Blog, Content Editor Dan Amrich talked about what it was like creating this title and the various inspirations that helped shape it:

“We hinted that the game was more than merely a brawler when we announced the project this past summer, and with about 70% of the gameplay focused on beating up Rita Repulsa’s army of Putty Patrollers, anyone looking to clean house with melee attacks and combos should feel very comfortable. The remaining gameplay takes inspiration from Sega’s innovative super-scaler games, like Space Harrier and Out Run. Before polygons ruled the earth, these games simulated 3D movement with a series of fast-moving 2D sprites. These are designed to deliver fast, in-your-face scrolling action, and we thought they’d be a perfect way to let MMPR fans take down some of the Rangers’ most famous foes.”

One of the ways that the game will “defy expectations” is by going from horizontal gameplay to the Z-axis and allowing players to experience a much different kind of gameplay than other side-scrollers of older generations. That includes getting into the legendary Dinozords and outracing all sorts of threats before forming the Megazord and taking on enemies like Goldar from a first-person perspective.

“Mixing all these different genres felt like the right thing to do to keep Rita’s Rewind perpetually fresh, but it was a heck of a lot of fun for us, too. We love brawlers, but they can get repetitive; we’re hoping that mixing in racing, blasting, and punching will make Rita’s Rewind a thrill for players who have always dreamed about what Jason, Trini, Zack, Billy, and Kimberly’s game would have been like had they walked into an arcade in the mid-1990s.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind will arrive on December 10th, and you’ll get to experience for yourself the power of nostalgia while also having a unique set of gameplay styles.