Its hard not to get excited when you boot up Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Ritas Rewind and hear the nostalgic guitar riffs of the theme song. The game starts with sending the gang back to the 90s before jumping straight into the action: flipping and fighting their way through waves of putty patrollers deployed by iconic villain Rita Repulsa. The rangers or ranger, if youre playing alone fight their way through a sandy valley and across some rooftops before getting on a speeder and blasting away bad guys in a chase through the canyon in the first few levels. Its all leading into the first big fight, where the rangers transform their vehicles into the Megazord. Whats supposed to be a marquee battle is actually just a watered-down, timing-heavy version of Punch-Out!! a big letdown that continues throughout the rest of the game.Its not that Ritas Rewind is bad, but the good parts are limited to the repetitive side-scrolling levels that shine largely due to nostalgia for the genre and franchise. The locations and art are stunning re-creations of iconic locations from the series, but there ends up not being enough variety in what you do in those locations: Enemies and movesets are both limited, and, frustratingly, theres very little evolution of the speeder chase and Megazord fights. While Digital Eclipses 2022 release Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge felt alive and buzzing, Ritas Rewind feels slow and stale it doesnt have the iteration or depth expected of a reimagining of the 1994 classic. Shredders Revenge, too, was a modern version of the classic TMNT brawler, with mechanically interesting combat and variety in enemies; Ritas Rewind, by comparison, feels clunky. Its that comparison that may be detrimental to Ritas Rewind: I came into the experience expecting an evolution of the classics, like with Shredders Revenge, but what Digital Eclipse created is more akin to what it was like playing a 16-bit brawler back in the day. It doesnt feel like a game that was made in 2024.If youre looking for a simple experience that is a true throwback, youll likely have more fun with Ritas Rewind. In that case, youre in for a nostalgia treat: The colorful world is full of references and grotesque enemies youll remember, like Chunky Chicken and Turkey Jerk. The best parts of Ritas Rewind are the aesthetic of the environment and its characters, and seeing where the game takes you next. The big change from other brawler games is the Time Disruptor, which putties occasionally carry into the battleground. Its set to a timer, and if its not destroyed before it self-destructs, the timeline rewinds briefly meaning youll have to fight whatever bad guys youve already defeated again. It doesnt add much difficulty or meaning, however it just fills time.And, perhaps, the team at Digital Eclipse needed that: Ritas Rewind took just over two hours to beat. Its not much shorter than Shredders Revenge, but repetition made everything blur together. Ritas Rewind ends up relying far too heavily on nostalgia, creating something thats maybe too close to the SNES game its drawing from instead of pushing the genre for more depth.Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Ritas Rewind was released on Dec. 10 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One. The game was reviewed on Windows PC via Steam Deck using a pre-release download code provided by Digital Eclipse. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can findadditional information about Polygons ethics policy here.