I have spent many a quarter at the arcade on a certain group of heroes in a half shell. I’ve also been emotionally scarred from a certain underwater level from a certain NES game involving those same teenage mutant ninja heroes. Am I excited to re-experience some of my retro gaming nightmares from not being able to beat a couple of turtle-powered video games? You betcha! Cowabunga (Collection)!
Okay, in all seriousness, this was one of my favorite things announced at Sony’s “State Of Play,” especially since it’ll give me a chance to play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games I missed out on. Yes, I immediately zeroed in on Tournament Fighters, which takes my love of Street Fighter 2 and gives it a pizza.
What totally tubular games are in the collection?
While the game boasts an astonishing 13 games, I should note that some of the titles are alternate versions of each other. That said, there are differences between them. For example, the SNES version of Tournament Fighters does not have April O’Neil as a playable character, but the Genesis version does. It’s also kinda quaint to be getting both the arcade AND SNES versions of Turtles in Time.
The full list of games is as follows:
- 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 (Sega Genesis)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Game Boy)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Game Boy)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy)
The other bodacious details we know so far
The game is set to release sometime in 2022. While it was announced during Sony’s “State Of Play,” the game will be available on multiple consoles outside of the PS4 and PS5. You’ll be able to snag a copy for the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox One, and Steam. According to PC Gamer, The Cowabunga Collection will be $39.99.
The collection is being put together by Digital Eclipse, who has released other video game collections like the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, and The Disney Afternoon Collection. PC Gamer goes on to say the following:
Other notable aspects are the inclusion of Japanese regional versions of 11 of the games (two never got Japanese releases), and the press release promises “loads of extras using imagery from the original cartoons, comics and other historic TMNT media content in a compiled Museum connecting the franchise across the various mediums. Additionally, never-before-seen development art, sketches and game design material will also be included.”
This collection isn’t the only turtles gaming fix we’re scheduled to get this year. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which is a fantastic looking love-letter to the beat-em-up style games in The Cowabunga Collection, still looks to be set for a 2022 release. Shredder’s Revenge is being developed by Tribute Games and published by Dotemu, who gamers may remember from their release of Streets of Rage 4.
Clearly, 2022 is a good time to love being a turtle.
(Image: YouTube screencap/Konami)
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