tnmt cowabunga collection

content/games/switch/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-the-cowabunga-collection.md

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+---
+title: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection"
+date: 2024-05-29T20:33:00+02:00
+score: 4
+game_release_year: 2022
+series: "Turtles"
+howlongtobeat_id: 107321
+howlongtobeat_hrs: 10.2
+game_name: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection"
+game_developer: 'Digital Eclipse'
+game_genre: "Beat 'em up"
+tags:
+  - turtles
+---
+
+After playing and reviewing so many old school [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TNMT) games](/tags/turtles), it was inevitable to eventually land on Digital Eclipse's retro _Cowabunga Collection_ that successfully manages to wrap and tie a bow around the best 8-bit and 16-bit pixelated Heroes in a Half Shell. No more running around and shelling out (ha!) big bucks for a busted up and barely working cartridge copy: for `€35`, you've got yourself thirteen TNMT beat-em-up games all originally developed by Konami between 1989 and 1994. And true to retro fans who love to hold something in their hand: there's a Switch card that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Yet.
+
+![](menu.jpg "The main menu where you can choose between the available games, currently highlighting Turltes III on Game Boy.")
+
+So what's new? We've seen countless of retro re-releases before based on software emulation and sold as collections, such as Capcom's _Mega Man Collection_ or the _Disney Afternoon Collection_. Reporters make us believe that the amount of scanline options and available color palettes in those emulators are of paramount importance---they're not, but it's there if you want to. What else is a reason to buy this, except for having them all in one cart? 
+
+Well, for one, there's online multiplayer, provided you're a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber---which I'm not. Even if I would, I'm not the target audience here, as these beat-em-up games are a superb way to pass the evening with friends on the couch. These were meant to be played together, as in, _offline_ real-life together. Even the original arcade versions of the original and the beloved _Turtles in Time_ are present and correct, which is an impressive first. 
+
+No, instead, the biggest selling point, besides the obvious emulation-like features like save states, cool rewind features and whatnot, is that beautiful bow Digital Eclipse is known for. The presentation is excellent and there's plenty of extras to marvel at, such as scanned instructions, hi-res box art, a few stills from nineties comics and TV shows, a Turtle cassette player capable of replaying any music track of any game, and more. 
+
+![](hyperstoneheist.jpg "Hacking my way through Hyperstone Heist on a ship.")
+
+If you can't be bothered to play a game but are still curious to see what's behind that pesky water level featuring way too many aptly placed electric plants, why not press the `Y` button to watch a session instead? That's right, you can watch a recording of a playthrough of any game. It gets even better: at any point during that play, you can take over! I found that feature alone to be brilliant and welcoming, especially considering the punishing difficulty of some of these 8-bit NES/Game Boy installments. 
+
+I know most of these Turtles games quite well thanks to a Game Boy addiction in my youth, but even then, the strategy guide one-pager (divided into multiple sections to zoom in on) contained new insights on how to tackle difficult sections or even cheese/cheat my way through. These guides were rewritten just for this collection, by the way, and even contain video snippets to show you the ropes of for instance overcoming the jail mini-boss fights in [Turtles II on Game Boy](/games/gameboy/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-back-from-the-sewers). Plenty of classic Konami code entries are revealed here as well.
+
+![](turtlesii.jpg "Getting my ass kicked by the NES installment of Turtles II's first boss, Rocksteady.")
+
+Contrary to Konami's [Castlevania Anniversary Collection](/games/switch/castlevania-anniversary-collection), Digital Eclipse opted to include _all_ 8 and 16-bit Turtles games:
+
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Game Boy)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers (Game Boy)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega MegaDrive)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (SNES)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega MegaDrive)
+- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES)
+
+Again, I am especially impressed at the arcade inclusions. Hopefully Konami (or rather, M2 on instructions of) will one day release the missing Castlevania installments in Yet Another Retro Collection and when that day comes I'll once again faithfully hand over my money.
+
+A quick side note for Otaku perfectionists: all games can be played in their original Japanese release as well, which is yet another neat touch to this overall superb presentation.
+
+![](turtlesiv.jpg "Yes, Turtles In Time is included, twice: as the Turtles IV SNES one and as the original arcade game!")
+
+Yet once I played [Shredder's Revenge](/games/switch/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shredders-revenge) and went back to these classic Turtle installments, I quickly lost interest, as most of them are just a button mash fest that's simply not that interesting to play by yourself. The best value in most of these games (except the Game Boy ones of course) really lies in their couch co-op play capabilities, just like Sega fans would play _Streets of Rage_ or any other beat-em-up.
+
+I hope now I'm finally done slurping green slime; it's time to put a can on this shell. _It's Pizza Time!_ Now the only thing left to decide is whether or not to sell my original Game Boy carts to finance this collection and potentially another one...