''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection'' is a 2022

video game compilation A video game compilation is a type of product bundling in which different video games are available for purchase as a special collection. They are often stored on the same physical media or digital package, making use of menu interfaces that al ...

developed by

Digital Eclipse Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co. is an American video game developer based in Emeryville, California. Founded by Andrew Ayre in 1992, the company found success developing commercial Video game emulation, emulations of arcade games for ...

and published by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

. It features 13 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' video games developed by Konami between 1989 and 1994. The compilation includes the Western and Japanese versions of most titles, and adds online capabilities in certain games. ''The Cowabunga Collection'' was released for

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

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and

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on August 30, 2022.

Content

''The Cowabunga Collection'' adds save states, rewind functions, button mapping, as well as online capabilities in certain games and local co-op in all games where it was originally intended. It features an in-game museum that offers previously unseen development art, sketches and game design material for the titles. Almost every game includes both the Western and Japanese versions, with the exceptions being the arcade version of ''Turtles in Time'' and the NES version of ''Tournament Fighters,'' which did not have Japanese versions. ''The Cowabunga Collection'' compiles 13 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' games developed by Konami between 1989 and 1994, listed below.

Development and release

The compilation was developed by

, who had previously worked on other retro collections, such as '' The Disney Afternoon Collection'' and '' Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection''. ''The Cowabunga Collection'' was announced as part of the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

State of Play event on March 9, 2022. Charles Murakami of, the senior producer at

pitched a collection of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle'' themed game collection that would include other promotional material related to the comic series and the animated television series. Digital Eclipse developed the project and worked with Rich Whitehouse who was the ROM engineer on the project and was able to reverse-engineer the games. Material related to the game was collected from a weeks worth of research at

The Strong The Strong is an interactive, collections-based educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States, devoted to the study and exploration of play. It carries out this mission through six programmatic arms called "Play Partners": * Th ...

. Konami went through their archive in Japan and found about 2,000 pages of

design document A software design description (a.k.a. software design document or SDD; just design document; also Software Design Specification) is a representation of a software design that is to be used for recording design information, addressing various de ...

s and promotional art which were scanned and translated or captioned to be included as bonus material in the release.

Release and reception

''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection'' was featured at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. It was released for the

and

on August 30, 2022. A limited edition physical version of the game was also released, containing a cloth poster, an acrylic diorama, an enamel pin set, 12 Tournament Fighters cards, and a 180-page artbook. The box art and cloth poster were designed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator

Kevin Eastman Kevin Brooks Eastman (born May 30, 1962) is an American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird. Eastman was also formerly the editor and publisher of the magazine ''Heavy Metal ...

. ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection'' received "generally favorable" reviews, according to the

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. By April 7, 2023, the release had sold over 1 million copies. ''

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering Retrogaming, retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' ...

'' magazine complimented the bonus features and quality of life features such as the ability to rewind some games and remove flickering on others, and the high quality emulation that had a "tiny bit of input lag in some games, but nothing that hampered play".

Notes

References

External links

* {{Digital Eclipse video games 2022 video games Digital Eclipse games Konami games Konami video game compilations Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Retro-style video games Side-scrolling beat 'em ups Video games based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Video games set in the United States Video games set in New York City Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games