Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection review

Reviewed on: PC

Digital Eclipse gives new life to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles with care and respect for the new-generation player.

Straight from the past, Konami put in Digital Eclipse’s hands the job of compiling and optimizing the classic titles of the world’s most famous mutant reptiles in a collection that includes titles from several platforms, ranging from arcades to consoles, both home and handheld.

The titles included are:

• 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 (Mega Drive)

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Mega Drive)

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Gameboy)

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy)

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Gameboy)

In this version you can see the care Digital Eclipse took to bring the original material in its best quality. Several audio tracks were restored and cleaned, compared with the compressed sound the original games had. The music was treated and sounds very good even given its MIDI nature.

The collection also allows saving and loading at any time (plus rewind, as in Nintendo Switch Online), a range of available filters, fully customizable button mapping, plus a variety of extra content and behind-the-scenes material.

Some of the titles also offer Online Multiplayer!

Story

Describing the story of each classic title of this street-brawler franchise comes down to this: Shredder has been up to no good again or has returned from the shadows once more, and the Ninja Turtles group is once again responsible for stopping the villain’s ninja forces.

The story is usually told in brief panels between stages or just in the quick dialogue the villains have with the main character.

Gameplay

The merit of a brawler-style title with several characters is that each one’s gameplay is different, and the franchise brings that as a signature in its games.

The controls are quite responsive, there are no frame drops and the replay factor is very strong when you think about fighting enemies using the characters’ different abilities.

In some of the titles, this difference is more striking than in others and, in Tournament Fighters, being a fighting game with several characters, their moves are clearly quite distinct.

Conclusion

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is not something huge in video games, but it had its popularity in the style it set out for, so for multiplayer with friends or that dose of retro to enjoy, it’s a good pastime.

However, the current price is quite steep for a collection like this, but since we are used to collections coming out more and more expensive, it’s hard to see this happening less in this market.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is recommended, especially on sale or if you really enjoy brawlers.

Played on PC with an Xbox One Controller.