This has definitely been a great year for NEW TMNT content. We received the final issue of TMNT: The Last Ronin by co-TMNT creator Kevin Eastman, Netflix released a new TMNT animated film based on the Rise series, and of course, developer Tribute Games blessed us with the amazing TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge.
All of the above-mentioned would have been more than enough to satisfy any TMNT fan, however the unthinkable was yet to come. Konami announced they were not only re-releasing the beloved TMNT arcade games back to consoles but were also combining them with all their previously released titles across multiple platforms which means this collection has a whopping 13 games! Appropriately titled TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, here is a listing of all the games included in this package.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Game Boy)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Game Boy)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy)
The main questions gamers have when hearing about these sorts of collections are the following:
1. What improvements or enhancements have been implemented to these games?
2. Is there any additional content included other than screen borders?
Thankfully, the fine folks at Konami and Digital Eclipse were well aware of these questions and have not only made the quality of life improvements but included EVERY piece of side content one could have imagined and more. For starters, all of the games have save states, rewinds, screen filters, screen size adjustments, and HI-Res scans of the original game manuals along with guides. The days of getting lost in the flooded sewers and constantly drowning in TMNT NES are finally over!
Another cool feature is the ability to watch a full playthrough. Once you highlight the game that you want to watch, just press (X). Use the left trigger to rewind and the right to fast forward. There is also an enhancement button that allows for level selection and the ability to enable god mode or up the difficulty to various degrees.
All of the games look and feel like they did on their respective platforms. My kids love playing on their switch so they got a kick out of playing TMNT Radical Rescue (Game Boy) considering this was on Nintendo’s first handheld. Just remember pressing RB to bring up the menu to save, load, game manual, strategy guide, etc.
Pressing LB will rewind and yes that also applies when battling in 1vs1 games. Only player 1 can perform the rewind so please NO CHEATING! There are also some titles that along with local co-op also offer online play.
Online play supported games
- TMNT (Arcade)
- TMNT: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
- TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist
- TMNT Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo)
There is also no need to search for these games in the collection. Just use the left stick to scroll to “Online” and upon clicking you will see all of the online supported games. You can create or join a game. Please note: there’s NO save or rewind functionality while playing online.
As if this massive TMNT collection wasn’t enough, they have also added what appears to be the ULTIMATE additional content section in the history of video games. The Turtle’s Lair, a virtual museum, is absolutely amazing, and includes the following:
- Advertisements
- Game Boxes
- Catalog / Media Kits
- Comic Book Covers
- Design Documents
- Game Manuals
- TV Episodes – (HI-Res images)
- Full music soundtrack for each game
This museum collection is so massive that it has a “Search” button. You can honestly spend hours looking over all this content while jamming out to classic TMNT tunes.
TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection exceeded all of my expectations. We have seen some great collections released in recent years. However, in my opinion, the beautifully designed menu interface, number of features, and the absurd amount of additional content in the Turtles Lair makes this one if not the best collection of all time.
This review was written based on a digital review copy of TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection for Xbox Series X provided by Digital Eclipse and Konami.
