Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection

In a world filled with unnecessary remakes and remastered games running amok, gamers need a hero. Actually, what they need are four heroes ... in the half shell. That’s right, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are here to show everybody how to make a high-quality video game compilation that isn’t a giant rip-off. Featuring more than a dozen games, online multiplayer, multiple region options and all the bells and whistles you expect in 2022, The Cowabunga Collection is the perfect time capsule to an era before needless microtransactions and loot boxes. It's a reminder that sometimes all you need to have fun is a whole lot of button mashing. Get those nunchucks ready, because this is my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection.

For a little context, I am what you might call an old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. I was just the right age for the original 1987 cartoon and collected all of the toys and enjoyed the first movie. And even as I aged out of the kids’ show, I still enjoyed the games, which were mostly centered around Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Rapheal kicking butt in simple button-mashy beat ‘em ups. I still have a lot of nostalgia for these pizza-loving heroes all these decades later, so I was delighted to see that most of the games in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection still hold up.

This lovingly-produced compilation covers the 8- and 16-bit games that came out between 1989 and 1994. This includes the two arcade beat ‘em ups, four different Nintendo Entertainment System games, three side-scrolling action games on the Game Boy, Turtles in Time on the Super NES, The Hyperstone Heist on the Genesis and three different versions of Tournament Fighters. It’s a strong line-up with a lot of great brawlers, a few fun surprises and only a couple duds.

As far as I’m concerned, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were at their video game best when they were beating up the Foot Clan in one of several beat ‘em ups. Although a little slow and simplistic by today’s standards, the 1989 arcade game perfectly captures what was so great about the cartoon. Between the comedic animations, the non-stop action, the familiar locations and all of the cool cameos, this game created the template for how to make a great Turtles video game.

You saw this formula used once again in the 1991 follow-up, Turtles in Time, which speeds up the action, adds a lot of moves and takes our heroes through a time-travelling adventure filled with memorable locations and challenging bosses that came straight from the show. This is a classic and many people’s favorite Turtles game, and for good reason. This game is a lot faster and more fun than the other brawlers, and seeing the Turtles jump through time is a killer conceit. Its only real competition is the Super NES port, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

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While not as good as Turtles in Time, we get two more arcade-style brawlers in the collection, with both The Manhattan Project and The Hyperstone Heist. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III on the NES is a solid 8-bit follow-up to the arcade game, complete with a bunch of colorful new stages and a whole surfing section where our heroes intend to ride the waves from Florida to New York City. It’s not a bad game, but easily the weakest of the beat ‘em ups in this package.

And then there’s The Hyperstone Heist, which was a huge deal back in 1992, as it saw Konami bringing the Mutant Turtles to the Sega Genesis for the first time. The game is ... fine. It recycles a lot of levels, moves and animations from Turtles in Time, and the new stuff isn’t nearly as gripping as what we saw in the other games. It’s a fun novelty to go back and play now, but certainly not the highlight for this package.

On top of featuring both arcade games, The Cowabunga Collection also features the console ports. The first is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, the 1990 NES port that does a reasonable job of shrinking the coin-op game down to 8-bits. The levels and bosses are there, though it’s only two players and the graphics have taken a real hit. With the arcade game featured in the compilation, I’m not sure why anybody would opt for this downgraded version.

It's the complete opposite situation when it comes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, the Super NES port that actually adds a bunch of levels that we didn’t see in the arcade. While not exactly pixel perfect to the coin-op original, this console version is just as fast and fun, and the changes it makes to the story makes Turtles in Time even better. The only downside is that this Super NES port of Turtles in Time does not feature online multiplayer support, while the less interesting Hyperstone Heist does.

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Now, you may have noticed that the Ninja Turtle games on the NES are confusingly numbered. That’s because Konami decided to release a standalone side-scrolling action game on the Nintendo Entertainment System before the beat ‘em up hit arcades. This 1989 action game is, without a doubt, the most divisive title in the collection. It got mixed reviews when it first came out and is infamous for being unreasonably difficult. Personally speaking, this was my first time playing the game in at least twenty-five years, and I was surprised by how much fun I had. Yes, it's still frustrating, but I appreciate what they were trying to do more now than I did as a kid. It also helps that this collection allows you to rewind time a few seconds and save before the especially challenging sections. It’s those quality-of-life additions that make this game so much easier to play through.

For me, the biggest surprises came in the form of the three Turtles games on the old black and white Game Boy. They are simple, short and a little rough, but they are also surprisingly speedy and a real joy to play. I was especially impressed with the first two, which reminded me a lot of games like Kung Fu Master and Vigilante. I like that these aren’t ports of other games, allowing them to have a unique look and feel. They won’t take very long to beat, but these three portable games are definitely worth checking out, especially if you missed them the first time around.

That leaves us with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, which was released on the Super NES, Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System. We get all three because each version is quite a bit different, with different characters, backgrounds and moves. The Super NES version comes with online multiplayer support, which is smart, as it’s easily the best iteration of Tournament Fighters. The Genesis version allows you to choose fan-favorites April O’Neil and Casey Jones, but the sluggish controls are hard to get used to. And then there’s the NES version, which is the most limited of the three. It’s worth noting that The Cowabunga Collection comes with optional enhancements that will remove some of the technical problems caused by the aging hardware, such as slowdown and flicker.

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Beyond those technical enhancements, I really appreciate the extra work put in by developer Digital Eclipse. For example, every game comes with a visual strategy guide that will give you pointers and reveal some of the cheat codes buried in the coding. You can also choose between the American and Japanese versions of most of these games, which is a fun addition. All this is neatly contained in a good-looking package that is easy to sort and full of great games.

The truth is, my biggest complaints are fairly minor (and barely worth mentioning). The most annoying thing I found was the placement of the pause button, which is mapped to the R1 button. I found my finger slipping and hitting that button, constantly pausing the games at the worst spot. I also found some of the game-specific backgrounds to be a bit bland, especially the one that comes with the arcade version of Turtles in Time. I wish that I could cycle through other backgrounds, but the video options are a bit limited.

Obviously, a lot of the problems that plagued these games when they were first released are still issues now, even with the enhanced options and ability to save and rewind. The beat ‘em ups are still repetitive, with each level moving from left to right as you mash the attack button. The Game Boy games are still short and simplistic. The original 1989 action game on the NES is still a bit of a mess. There’s nothing Digital Eclipse can do about that. But a lot of us have real nostalgia for these games, even if some of them are flawed. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is a package that reminds us why we loved these games in the first place, warts and all.