You know what’s fun? Time travel. It’s particularly useful when you’re making a game based on a huge franchise with 30 years of history – like, say, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. So, if you’re going to add to that rich lore, you’d better be prepared to consider three decades of worldbuilding across TV, movies, games, and comics. This is exactly what the team at Digital Eclipse took on during the making of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind.

Devoted fans know every episode, every battle, every line of dialogue. Rangers history means a lot to fans because it represents the hours of imagination and emotion they’ve invested in these characters and events that have brought them so much joy, and as such, crafting a new story worthy of that franchise and, by extension, the respect of its fans, is no small task.

Our springboard for the story of Rita’s Rewind was the 30th anniversary Netflix special, Once & Always. In the special, Robo Rita – a synthetic, 100 percent evil evolution of the franchise’s original villain, Rita Repulsa – creates a time portal and kidnaps Power Rangers from different eras.

Rather than simply retell that story, we thought up a “what if?” scenario – if you’re an evil sorceress with a time portal, wouldn’t you be tempted to go back in time and mock your earlier self for all those dumb mistakes? Imagine battling your greatest foes during their earliest, weakest days and using all your future knowledge to obliterate them in the past. It’s a dream team and a nightmare scenario at the same time. (And just to be clear, none of this is canon, so chill out and have fun.)

Our story team enjoyed digging deep into Rangers lore to come up with something that felt new, but remained aligned with everything fans know by heart. Once we decided on the core plot, we came to some realizations: If Robo Rita knows the same 30 years of history that fans know, she can start plucking enemies from other eras and dropping them where they don’t belong, which can both confuse and delight fans. The feathered Tenga Warriors, a staple of MMPR season 3, now appear early in our first episode, which takes place in season 1.

And which of Rita’s creepy champions could we borrow from other timelines in the name of interesting gameplay mechanics? Weaving elements from different periods of Power Rangers history makes every detail even more important to incorporate. It’s not something that writes itself — it can actually get kind of tricky. But like I said, it’s also fun.

We also worked hard to get the personalities of Jason, Kimberly, Billy, Trini, and Zack dialed in, and accurately reflect their characters from the early years of MMPR. For instance: Billy’s always going to use the most perplexing, erudite verbiage possible to explain science stuff to his teammates; otherwise, he wouldn’t sound like Billy. And when Kimberly doesn’t quite grasp what Billy’s talking about, Trini often steps in to put it in plainer terms. We think those types of elements make a project “feel right” as a Power Rangers adventure. Hopefully, fans who see those details will realize our dev team respects the franchise as much as they do. 

Throughout Rita’s Rewind, we’ve tried to balance Power Rangers authenticity with nostalgia, which often polishes memory into something more than it actually was. As a “what if” retelling of the first 20 or so episodes of the TV show, the story of Rita’s Rewind takes place in the mid-90s, so we wanted to make our gameplay an idealized version of the arcade games of that era, too.

In gameplay segments that recall some of arcade gaming’s greatest titles, Rita’s Rewind players will drive at high speed, fight giant monsters, blast hundreds of enemies, and punch anything that gets in their path. Brawlers are back in a big way lately, thanks to innovative development teams injecting new life into a long-abandoned genre. We’re honored to have the chance to contribute to this renaissance, and we think we’ve got a game that will feel very familiar yet ultimately fresh.

In fact, when we showed Rita’s Rewind at PAX West this year, we heard some people walk by our brand-new game and shout “Oh yeah, I remember playing that back in the day!” Uh, no, you don’t – but thank you, because that’s exactly our goal.

The current resurgence of 90’s nostalgia isn’t limited to games; bands like Oasis and Blur are back on stage, and the celebrated X-Men animated series has returned as X-Men ’97. As a result, we were thrilled when we were able to leverage the talents of three actors who worked on that series, as well as several other professionals. Here’s a quick cast rundown:

• Red Ranger: A.J. LoCascio (“Gambit,” X-Men 97 and “Han Solo,” LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga)
• Yellow Ranger: Holly Chou (“Jubilee,”  X-Men 97 and “Chiki,” Blue Eye Samurai)
• Black Ranger: Isaac Robinson-Smith (“Bishop,” X-Men ’97 and “CO Cunningham,” Batman: Arkham Shadow)
• Pink Ranger: Christina Vee (“Shantae,” Shantae and “Noel Vermillion,”BlazBlue)
• Green Ranger: James Willems (“Dolph,” Camp Camp and “Rich Dad,” Psychonauts 2)
• Robo Rita: Ally Dixon (“Eep,” The Croods: Family Tree and “Nikki Narwhal,” Thelma the Unicorn)

That leaves the Blue Ranger, which is where things get personal. I’ve been a SAG/AFTRA actor for several years before joining the team at Digital Eclipse (that’s me singing in The Sims: Bustin’ Out for the original Xbox!), so I was honored to be able to perform the role of Billy. I’m proud to add my voice to a professional cast that delivers dialogue with intensity and energy, offering a perfect match to the game’s frenetic arcade action.

From super-scaler gameplay segments that feel like they came straight from a vintage arcade to a story filled with chronological impossibilities, every critical element of Rita’s Rewind revolves around time. There’s just one more critical date: December 10, 2024, which is when you’ll be able to play the game on Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. We hope you’ll enjoy spending time with Rita’s Rewind!