And now for some good news, mostly for the olds out there. If you were a gamer back when the Sega Genesis and Ninty’s SNES were a thing, you probably played one of Konami’s Ninja Turtles games. Well, they’re all coming back, thanks to the pending launch of the Cowabunga Collection.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection (TMNT: CC for short) collects thirteen classic titles together in one place. The games hail from the arcade, the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis and the Game Boy, but they’ll all be playable on… well, basically all the modern consoles. The PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, Nintendo Switch, and PC are all getting access to the collection later this year.
Cowabunga, dudes!
Youngsters giving the game(s) a shot will find technology has made life easier over the years. Save and rewind functions have been added, and a few games have even had online play added. It looks, in the latter case, that three games are getting online play. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade), a co-op brawler, Tournament Fighters (SNES), a 2D versus title in the vein of Street Fighter, and The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis), another co-op title, will have online support.
There’s a batch of extra features to explore, and the ability to add button mapping. This might make up for the fact that there don’t seem to be any visual fidelity upgrades coming. But if you’re excited by the return of Leo, Don, Mike and Raph, you’ll be especially thrilled.
And one more
Dotemu, the studio behind the recent (and long overdue) Streets of Rage 4, is making a brand-new four-player TMNT side-scroller. Called Shredder’s Revenge, it’s a proper brawler for up to four players. There’s only a brief snatch of actual gameplay in the video above, but it’s worth checking out. And the minute of nostalgia-heavy cutscene that precedes it isn’t to be sneezed at either. Ew.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge launches on the PC, Switch, and Sony and Microsoft’s consoles later this year. Konami, weirdly, has nothing to do with this one. Nickelodeon, Tribute Games, and Dotemu are making this one happen. No matter who’s behind it, though, we’re super keen on kicking some shell in a few months.