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This has definitely been a great year for NEW TMNT content. We received the latest issue of TMNT: The Last Ronin from fellow TMNT creator Kevin Eastman, Netflix has released a new TMNT animated movie based on the Rise series, and of course developer Tribute Games blessed us with the amazing TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge.

All of the above would have been more than enough to satisfy any TMNT fan, but the unthinkable was yet to come. Konami announced that they were not only re-releasing the beloved TMNT arcade games on consoles, but were also combining them with all of their previously released titles across multiple platforms, meaning this collection includes a whopping 13 games! Applicable title TMNT: The Cowabunga Collectionhere is a list of all the games included in this pack.

  • 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 (SuperNintendo)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (SuperNintendo)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Gameboy)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewer (Gameboy)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical rescue (Gameboy)

The main questions gamers have when they hear about these types of collections are the following:

1. What improvements or improvements have been made to these games?

2. Is there any content other than screen borders?

Fortunately, the fine folks at Konami and Digital Eclipse were well aware of these questions and have not only improved the quality of life, but added EVERY bit of sideline content you can imagine and more. For starters, all games have save states, rewind, screen filters, screen size adjustments, and HI-Res scans of the original game manuals along with manuals. The days of getting lost in the flooded sewers and constantly drowning in TMNT NES are finally over!

Another cool feature is the ability to watch a full playthrough. Once you’ve highlighted the game you want to watch, just press (X). Use the left trigger to rewind and the right trigger to fast forward. There is also an upgrade button that allows you to select levels and the ability to enable god mode or increase the difficulty to various degrees.

All games look and feel like they did on their respective platforms. My kids love to play on their Switch, so they got a kick out of playing TMNT Radical Rescue (Game Boy) since this was on Nintendo’s first handheld. Remember that you press RB to open the menu for save, load, game guide, strategy guide, etc.

Pressing LB will rewind and yes that also applies when fighting in 1vs1 games. Only player 1 can perform the rewind, so NO SPECIFICATIONS! There are also some titles that offer online play along with local co-op.

Play online supported games

  • TMNT (Arcade)
  • TMNT: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
  • TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist
  • TMNT Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo)

There is also no need to search for these games in the collection. Just use the left stick to scroll to “Online” and clicking it will show you all online supported games. You can create or join a game. Please note there is NO save or rewind feature while playing online.

As if this massive TMNT collection wasn’t enough, they’ve also added what looks like the ULTIMATE additional content section in video game history. The Turtle’s Lair, a virtual museum, is absolutely amazing and includes the following:

  • ads
  • game boxes
  • Catalog / Media Kits
  • Comic Book Covers
  • Design documents
  • Game guides
  • TV Episodes – (HI-Res Images)
  • Full music soundtrack for every game

This museum collection is so huge that there is a ‘Search’ button. You can really watch all this content for hours on end while jamming to classic TMNT tunes.

TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection exceeded all my expectations. We’ve seen some great collections over the years. However, in my opinion, the beautifully designed menu interface, number of features and absurd amount of extra content in the Turtles Lair make this the best collection of all time.


























Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

This review is based on a digital review copy of TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection for Xbox Series X provided by Digital Eclipse and Konami.