Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is another fine collection of classic video games from Digital Eclipse. The company knows how to release digital and physical packages that they know fans will enjoy. 2022 is a banger year for these mutant turtles with this collection along with the newly released Shredder’s Revenge.
Will 2022 bring home more surprises or is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection the final treat for fans of this series? Only time will tell but for now, let’s go through what makes this collection so special after all these years. Not every game in here is a winner, but it is overall a fan’s dream with only a few caveats.
7 Best: 13 Games In 1
There are thirteen games in the collection but only eight of them are original. This includes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade), Turtles in Time, Tournament Fighters, The Manhattan Project, Fall of the Foot Clan,Back from the Sewers, and Radical Rescue. The other six games are alternate versions and releases. The Hyperstone Heist is technically an original game, but it is more like a remixed release of Turtles in Time for Sega Genesis. It’s a good mix of co-op games with Turtles in Time being the clear winner.
6 Worst: Missing Games
Not every game in this collection is a winner. The first two Game Boy games along with the first NES game are not worth the time of day. There are bad games on the list as well as some missing turtle games. It’s a shame that the collection only goes as far as the SNES generation.
There are a ton of good Game Boy Advance games they could have added like TMNT, from 2007, which was like a precursor to the Scott Pilgrim vs The World game. It’s also too bad none of the PC versions or original titles, like Manhattan Missions, got highlighted. There is always hope that a second collection can someday be made. Getting the Re-Shelled version of Turtles in Time would also be grand.
5 Best: Gameplay Enhancements
Retro re-releases like The Cowabunga Collection are great because they usually add a lot of gameplay enhancements. For example, players can rewind their gameplay if they didn’t like how things turned out. There are new easy difficulties along with a God mode that will turn players invincible. Probably the best assist feature in the collection is that there is a way to watch the games play themselves. Then, at any time, players can jump in to take over. It is an ingenious feature that more retro collections need.
4 Worst: Missing Some Online Connectivity
Another great thing about the collection is that it adds online connectivity to the games. Players can create or search for a lobby for the two arcade games, the SNES version of Tournament Fighters, and The Hyperstone Heist. That is unfortunately where the online connectivity ends. It’s odd since most games in the collection have local multiplayer and co-op. Why were those four games chosen and not the others? Hopefully, this can be addressed in a patch.
3 Best: The Art Collection
Another thing that most remastered re-releases include is art collections. The Cowabunga Collection is no exception and it is a TMNT fan’s delight. Players can gush over the game boxes, magazines, guides, documents, and more. Plus there are non-game-related bonuses in the collection such as stills from the various eras of cartoons and comics. One of the cooler things is that the collection features the Japanese versions of some of the games along with their accompanying box art displays. The best Japanese box art belongs to Radical Rescue or Turtles’ Close Call as it is called over there.
2 Worst: Missing History Items
The bonus features are not complete though. As much as there is to drool over, there are other things fans can’t help but miss which can be true for many remastered collections. For example, where are the action figurines?
The action figures are just as important to the fandom as the games, comics, and movies. Presumably digitizing figures, along with finding them all, would be tricky, so it is understandable but still disappointing. It would have been nice to have seen some video bonuses too like maybe a full episode or two of the cartoon or some commercials.
1 Best: The Music
Even though some of these games are bad, fans can at least enjoy their music. The original NES game, for example, is like torture in 8-bit form. It can technically be completed in less than an hour and yet it is seemingly impossible without cheats. The soundtrack will at least make the torture less irritating. That’s another bonus feature in The Cowabunga Collection though. If one doesn’t wish to play the bad games, they can instead listen to their soundtracks in the bonus area. This is recommended as these games have some of Konami’s best work in them. The only downside is that the background menu music cannot be changed to a player’s favorite tune. That’s only a small nitpick though.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection was released on August 30, 2022, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.