Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (Switch) review "Everything you could ask for except the deep dish pizza."

Where to start? The Nintendo Switch has become the retro enthusiast's playground, with more reboots, remasters, and revisitings than any previous console. We seldom enjoy such a well-thought-out, perhaps even lovingly prepared package of 90s get-the-shell-out attitude and ninja shenanigans. If you are craving console and arcade-accurate gameplay with many tasty features to boot (pun intended), order up!

Digital Eclipse has rolled out the equivalent of the red carpet for our green-skinned adolescent heroes, giving each of the titles their due with all of the trimmings. Instead of just giving us cover art and a nifty thematic frame, each game is slotted into a unique panel of an original comic page. Controls, enhancements and region options sneakily lurk in a black bar of shadow at the bottom of the screen.

One of the standout features of this collection is the game preview. This unique feature allows you to watch any game being played automatically, giving you a taste of the action before you even start playing. You can step in at any time and take command of the action, giving you full control over your gaming experience. This feature also showcases the accuracy of the emulation for the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Gameboy and Arcade systems, leaving no room for doubt.

But the enhancements don't stop there. Each game comes with a range of options that allow you to fine-tune your gaming experience. For the NES titles, you can remove slowdown and sprite flicker, making the games smoother and more enjoyable. The Gameboy games offer options like Bonus Game practice, Gameboy Color mode, Infinite Lives, and the ability to choose your starting level, among others. These options make the retro difficulty more bearable for uninitiated, perhaps younger players. For the arcade games, you’ll find many options, including choosing your starting level, “God” mode, control of penalty bombs, nightmare mode, starting lives, difficulty and more.

The NES is represented in full with TMNT, the first of which was a bespoke title of the adventure variety. Much lauded for its boppy music and maligned by its quirky mechanics, it will scratch that itch, even if you didn’t know you had one. The second is TMNT II: The Arcade game, a pretty-darn-flickery, if accurate, port of its title subject. Third, we have TMNT III: The Manhattan Project, a sequel in the arcade style of the previous. Finally, we have TMNT: Tournament Fighters, a game made late in the NES life that no one is sure needs to exist.

The Gameboy, as mentioned, shows its green mettle with the three franchise titles that graced its platform. It seems to me it was a missed opportunity to provide an option to display the, uh, display in its original shades, befitting our heroes. The first is TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan, which has less than static artwork and gameplay. TMNT II: Back from the Sewers and TMNT III: Radical Rescue is better, however, with more dynamic gameplay, mechanics and combat. It's pretty easy to tell I didn’t spend time with them, but if they’re your bag, dive in!

The meatiest slice of this pie is most certainly the arcade. There are just two of them. TMNT and TMNT: Turtles in Time, but they get the most options and four-player support. With access to as many credits as you need, this is an excellent opportunity to call on some friends and relive the good times with these classics. Interestingly, this is where the SNES and Genesis picked up some severe TMNT credentials by having excellent ports for the second arcade game.

The SNES does things differently, with a sample-based soundtrack, “scaling” effects of thrown enemies, reduced animation, new bosses, and console-specific levels. Many heralded it as the best the franchise has seen on any platform, and it is still imitated. The Genesis port, entitled The Hyperstone Heist, also got a bit of a remix from the Turtles In Time content, with original levels, smoother gameplay and an “arcade accurate” soundtrack. That is to say, the Genesis uses a cousin of the arcade’s soundchip, so it can’t help that.

Finally, the Cowabunga Collection includes a wide range of content in the Turtle’s Lair. Surf a variety of character animation frames, box designs, arcade side art…if there’s art, there's a good likelihood you'll find it here. While you're at it, check out the tape cassette-themed music from the games. You’ll even bump into fully fleshed-out strategy guides for some games. You’ll find local and internet-enabled online play options to round things off. There’s nothing this collection is holding back for a retail release.

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Community review by hastypixels (April 10, 2024) Wisdom comes from effort and mistakes.