We’ve been seeing something of a beat ‘em up renaissance lately. We’ve seen successful revivals of Streets of Rage, River City Ransom (as River City Girls), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and others. One I really didn’t expect to see happen was Power Rangers. While there were Power Rangers beat ‘em ups on consoles, and were pretty good, they’re not something I regularly heard people asking for. But that didn’t stop Digital Eclipse from putting out a brand new Power Rangers game in the genre.

Before I really get going, I want to make sure you all understand how important Power Rangers is to me, particularly the first six seasons. I started watching the show in third grade, which was actually during season two. It was unlike anything I had seen before, and I could easily make the argument that seeing Power Rangers at that age is largely responsible for my taste in media as an adult. My love of costumed super heroes in both comics and movies? That’s probably from Power Rangers. My love of Godzilla and other kaiju movies? That’s Power Rangers’ Zord fights, absolutely. And maybe most obviously, in the last few years I’ve gotten really into Tokusatsu shows like Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman. Power Rangers is an American adaptation of Super Sentai, so yeah, that’s Power Rangers.

With that out of the way, the game opens in 2023, and Robo Rita is attempting to go back in time. Robo Rita was introduced in the 30th anniversary special, Once And Always, and I’m not sure where this game takes place related to that show. But it feels weird that they would pull this specific version of Rita if it wasn’t supposed to be connected. But anyway, she goes back in time to when the Power Rangers first got their powers. The Rangers were going to chase after them, but Billy the Blue Ranger stops them, wanting to prevent a time paradox. It’ll be up to the younger Rangers to deal with two Ritas.

Playing the game is very similar to other modern beat ‘em ups, but especially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. You’ll move through each stage beating everything you see up, but also finding hidden secrets like characters that need rescuing or mementos that reference episodes of the show. I was actually pretty impressed with some of these choices, there’s some pretty deep cuts. One of the people you rescue is Marge, a random girl Billy rescued in exactly one episode of the show and was never mentioned again.

The fighting is about what you’d expect, but it gets the job done. You can run, punch, double jump, jump kick, and dodge, which all feels nice and snappy. Sometimes there will be things in the environment, like signs or explosive barrels, that you can knock into your enemies for some fun extra damage. Like I said, if you’ve played a beat ‘em up, you know what this is. But despite the familiarity of it, I had a great time punching Putties and Tangas through all the levels.

And then there’s the Zords. I love the Zords in the show. Growing up, I had more Zord toys than regular Power Rangers toys. If I saw an episode where the Rangers defeated the monster without the need for the Zords, I’d feel disappointed. So I’m so happy they were included in the game, and it’s something that sets the game apart from other similar titles.

Here’s the thing though. The Zord sections are terrible. They look great. They’re played behind the back, with 2D enemies flying at you and shooting at you. But everything is so cluttered that I had a hard time even being able to tell what was hitting me half the time. There’s also the fact that the Pink Ranger’s Zord, the pterodactyl, can fly, making it way better than any other Zord. Because of this, I played the majority of the game as Kimberly.

And then when it comes time to fight one of the big monsters, the Zords come together to form the Megazord. These fights are from the first person view. You have to dodge attacks and land punches to build up a meter which lets you use the Power Sword. Any time you get hit though, your meter is depleted. Thankfully, you can’t lose these fights, but building that meter was extremely frustrating to me. It was so crazy, I was fighting iconic season one monster, Eye Guy, from inside the cockpit of the Megazord, and I was simply not having fun. How is that possible?

The last section of the game introduces the Green Ranger. This isn’t a spoiler, it’s literally talked about on the game’s website. This featured the only Zord fight I actually liked. You had to shoot Tommy who’s using the Dragon Dagger to control the Dragonzord. This opens the Dragonzord up to be attacked. I wish more of the Zord stuff was like this, fun and not frustrating.

Overall, I’m really glad I played through Rita’s Revenge. It definitely needs some work though, maybe some patches can tweak the Zord sections into something more fun. But I do recommend the game, especially to fans of the first few seasons of the show. It’s a game that understands what was so great about the series in the first place.