Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection Review

When I was eight years old, the family moved to Australia from Ireland in search of a new life. As much as my folks were worried if I’d settle in okay, all it took was four pizza-loving turtles to help me bond with all the fresh faces I found myself surrounded by, and one specific arcade cabinet that caught me eye one faithful evening at a nearby video store to our first home. I’ll never forget seeing it, the bright neon lights, the theme tune crackling over small stereo speakers, it’s stuck with me my entire life, as has the entire franchise, and now we finally have a home console collection worthy of those early days that mean so much to me.

Dubbed the Cowabunga Collection, Konami and retro collection veterans Digital Eclipse have brought together thirteen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle titles from across both arcades and home console releases (26 total thanks to the included Japanese editions of each title). There are the obvious inclusions of TMNT Arcade and its highly regarded sequel, Turtles In Time, their subsequent home console adaptions from the NES and SNES era, a number of spin-offs and sequels across Nintendo and Sega systems and a few oddities in the many TMNT: Tournament Fighters adaptions. All told, every inclusion is exactly as they were from back in the day, down to the visual flicker and choppy audio the consoles output while trying to keep up with the action.

Spelling was never his strength

No doubt most fans will gravitate towards both arcade ports, perfectly rendered and untampered from their original state, but there are a few forgotten gems here that are worth exploring if only because of their unique attempts to capture that same Turtle action. The Hyperstone Heist and The Manhattan Project were both admirable takes on the arcade formula and are fun to explore in their own way. The original Ninja Turtles on NES remains a challenging platformer to this day even if the visuals feel dated. There’s also something strangely appealing about booting up the old black and white Game Boy games, simplistic as they may be, and spending a little time to master their mechanics, with the Metroidvania inspired TMNT III: Radical Rescue the best of the three.

Then there’s Tournament Fighter, an oddity in and of itself. Long before their cameos in Injustice 2, the Turtles found themselves in three different takes on the beat ‘em up, and I don’t mean three different platforms, but three entirely different games in both story, setting and visual style. The Genesis edition is easily the weirdest, with the band of heroes fighting evil clones of themselves across the galaxy, meanwhile the SNES edition feels more like a Street Fighter clone with Michelangelo doing his best Ryu impression. None of them are easy, but regardless of their absurdity it’s still nice to have them here.

Digital Eclipse has made a name for putting together quality collections, Mega Man Legacy Collection and the Disney Classic Games Collection among them, and all the features and little touches you would expect are here and well done. Each game has its own strategy guide, the ability to rewind or save at any time, full button mapping and a few extra options to spice things up elsewhere such as online play for both arcade games. There’s also the Turtle Lair, a separate section where you can browse art pieces, box covers and manuals from every game included. Ultimately what you would expect from a modern compilation is here and it all works well despite not really deviating from the collection formula.

Mikey with the reality check

The asking price to own two of the best arcade games from the Konami era isn’t too bad, but some fans may be disappointed by the quality of the other titles included. That’s not a slight on the collection as a whole, but it goes to prove that some of these games have not aged well and don’t hold a candle to TMNT: Arcade or Turtles In Time. There’s also a surprising lack of challenges or bonus objectives to add some longevity to each game. They aren’t all entirely long, you can finish most of them within an hour or two, so a few added quests would have been welcome (Shredder’s Revenge did a decent job on that front). Still, whatever complaints there are mean nothing to me, and it all comes down to how excited you are to relive your youth or rediscover a game previously lost to time. That’s part of the fun, even if some of the games included are rough around the edges.

Final Thoughts

It’s been a great year for TMNT fans, and the Cowabunga Collection keeps that ball rolling. For those fans like me, or those coming across from Shredder’s Revenge that are curious about the past, there’s plenty here to enjoy both locally and online despite some of the included titles not exactly setting the world alight. As compilations go, Digital Eclipse again prove they are the best when it comes to delivering quality collections.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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