Switch owners have a lot of choices when it comes to collections, but the console just received one of its best packages ever with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection. There’s a lot to keep fans busy thanks to the thirteen titles available, but on top of that there are features like online play for some games, the ability to save and rewind at any time, development art and sketching. and historical media content.
To learn more about the making of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, we spoke with Konami senior producer Charles Murakami and Chris Kohler, editor-in-chief of Digital Eclipse. You can read our full discussion below.
How did the project initially start and eventually come about? How long has it been in the making?
Charles Murakami: A Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection was first considered in 2018 when we were planning collectible games for Konami’s 50th anniversary. After the Arcade, Castlevania and Contra anniversary collections were released, fans were very excited about the next TMNT games. With Nickelodeon, Konami and later Digital Eclipse on board, we were on our way to realize the TMNT Corabunga Collection.
How much involvement was there on Nickelodeon’s side? Was there anything the company needed to approve?
Charles Murakami: The look and features of the collection are inspired by the characters and places in TMNT lore, so Nickelodeon had a lot of art to review. Nickelodeon not only gave advice on how to keep the Turtles’ appearance accurate, but they also gave us a lot of substance. The collection includes screenshots from the animated TV shows so you can see the origins of the various characters that appear in the video games. Nickelodeon also helped us get IDW’s comic book covers into the game, and introduced us to Kevin Eastman (co-creator of TMNT). Kevin even created two brand new artworks for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Corabunga Collection Limited Edition!
Who animated the collection’s intro animation?
Chris Kohler: The intro animation was produced by two very talented Australian-based animators from the world of traditional animation, Tom Barkel and Kit Rigby. We love it!
How long did it take to get everything in the museum between scanning all the correct documents and getting all the high-quality screenshots for the cartoons?
Charles Murakami: The process took up the entire project. We started with scans of the game boxes and manuals, then continued to add more material until we had cartoon screens and comic book covers towards the end of development. To get the historical game design material for the video games, we spent a long time searching the Konami archives in Japan to find and scan hundreds of pages of never-before-seen documents.
Chris Kohler: Once we had all the design documents in hand, that was just the first step. Then we had to organize them all and make sure everything was in the right place. Then we translated most of it and added floating translation boxes where needed, so you can read the design documents in many languages. It was a huge effort from start to finish, but we wouldn’t have done it any other way.
Online multiplayer will be available, but only for some games in the collection. Can you explain how it was decided which games to support with that feature? Can games that are not supported be patched in the future to support online multiplayer?
Charles Murakami: Since none of the games were originally available online, we knew it would be a huge undertaking to add them. We chose the arcade games first because it would be much easier to have three other friends play with online play. The SNES version of TMNT Tournament Fighters was chosen because it has the most competitive scene. For the fourth game, we chose TMNT Hyperstone Heist for both the variety and to give love to the Genesis fans as well.
This project seems like a pretty big undertaking considering the number of games, versions, and behind-the-scenes content. What was the biggest challenge in putting the package together?
Charles Murakami: For me, the hardest part was getting an ambitious project with so many games off the ground, so anyone asking for the games was a big help.
Chris Kohler: From Digital Eclipse’s perspective, the interactive strategy guide we put together was a big, unique feature that we’ve never done before, and so it required a lot of innovative thinking and hours of work from many different teams (editors, engineering, art, production) to make it possible. We are all very proud of the result!
Were there any issues with the emulation of each game?
Chris Kohler: I think that when you present games from five different vintage platforms in one product, you will always discover some quirks that you did not expect. In the case of the Japanese Famicom versions of TMNT II: The Arcade Game and TMNT III: The Manhattan Project, these versions were found to use Konami’s VRC4 mapper chip, while the US versions used Nintendo’s MMC3. That meant updating our engine to support VRC4 if we wanted to include the Japanese versions of the games – which we absolutely wanted to do, to make it a definitive collection. (If you choose the Japanese versions, you’ll see the Japanese titles, which are different in most cases, as well as the original Japanese key art on the menu and bezel. As well as all the other differences in the games themselves, of course!)
Can you clarify which songs/soundtracks had to be replaced/re-done? Was that simply because of licensing issues or were there other factors?
Charles Murakami: Our music licensing department has done a great job obtaining the license to record as many original songs for each video game as possible, including “Pizza Power” for the arcade version of TMNT: Turtles in Time. Unfortunately, a song that played at the beginning of the first TMNT arcade game was not available for licensing and had to be replaced.
Digital Eclipse has previously said that Tournament Fighters on SNES offers “optimizations”. Can you explain what that means?
Chris Kohler: When played competitively online, the SNES version of TMNT: Tournament is set to Hi-Speed 1 at 60 seconds per match, and features rollback netcode. You can also click the Enhancements menu before starting a single player game and enable features such as the highest speed level, the ability to play as the bosses, and other cool stuff, all without entering elaborate cheat codes. Every game in the collection has these improvements, and they’re all adapted for each game, so be sure to check them out as you play.
Has any thought been given to including the most obscure Konami titles such as Manhattan Missions for PC and the Konami LCD games?
Charles Murakami: There are not only obscure games, there are obscure versions like the DOS version of the original NES TMNT. The current roster of 13 games has already pushed our resources to the limit. We are aware that there are many Konami games that were released during and even after the games in the Cowabunga collection, but we wanted to make sure that each of the 13 games got the proper attention they deserve.
Chris Kohler: Although we couldn’t include them, the Konami LCD games actually helped our research for the collection, as the official US name of one enemy (Flap Jaws, from the original NES game) is only on the back of the packaging for one of the LCD games. You can also see some pictures of the LCD games as part of the many behind-the-scenes items in our in-game Turtles’ Lair.
In a similar fashion, Konami released a number of other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games in the 2000s. Are you interested in re-releasing those titles together in an extra collection?
Charles Murakami: Never say never! I’ve waited decades for a TMNT collection and seeing other fans who share my desire to see this project come together is one of the greatest moments of my career. While sometimes the stars have to align for a project to come together, I’m encouraged when you see fans pushing those stars into place.
What is your personal favorite game in the collection?
Charles Murakami: I have a soft spot for the original arcade game for pure nostalgia, as I remember playing it with my friends at the local arcade. But I played TMNT III: Radical Rescue and TMNT III: The Manhattan Project for the first time while working on this project, and they’re awesome! TMNT III: Radical Rescue is my current favorite.
Chris Kohler: I agree with Charles in every way, especially that The Manhattan Project is an underrated gem. My favorite is probably the SNES version of Turtles in Time. Looking forward to playing that with my kid once the Cowabunga collection launches!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is now available on Switch. Nintendo Everything would like to thank Charles Murakami and Chris Kohler for taking the time to answer our questions.
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