Konami and Digital Eclipse are set to release the highly anticipated and long-requested compilation Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection next Tuesday. Old-school TMNT fans and newcomers who enjoyed Shredder's Revenge will want to keep an eye out for this bundle of 13 unique, classic games spanning genres like beat 'em ups, fighting games, and action-platformers, with a wealth of exclusive content and enhancements.
Game Rant spoke with Charles Murakami of Konami and Chirs Kohler from Digital Eclipse about bringing the definitive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game collection to life. Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Can you introduce yourselves, share your favorite turtle, and your absolute favorite TMNT video game?
Murakami: My name is Charles Murakami, and I am a Senior Producer at Konami Digital Entertainment. I used to be mechanical engineer, so I relate with Donatello, but I think my attitude is very Michelangelo. [Laughing] I feel like this a dating show! My favorite game growing up was the first arcade game, because I used to play it a lot with my friends back at the bowling alley. My recent favorite has been TMNT Radical Rescue for the Gameboy. That is a fantastic game.
Kohler: Hi! I’m Chris Kohler, the Editorial Director at Digital Eclipse. My favorite turtle is either Mikeatello or Raphanardo; I haven’t decided which. And I love the first arcade game. It might still be my favorite. I also love Turtles in Time for SNES, but my memories of the first arcade game back in the day… I remember saving up quarters, so we could try to go all the way for like $10.
Murakami: Oh! My favorite stage is in Manhattan Project because you can throw people over the edge. There’s a stage that has a hole in a bridge, and you can throw enemies into it, which is probably my favorite Turtles’ moment.
Q: How would you introduce readers to The Cowabunga Collection who haven't heard of it?
Kohler: Alright, The Cowabunga Collection is a compilation of thirteen Ninja Turtles games made by Konami in the 80s and 90s across arcade and consoles. Thirteen US releases, are included, as well as all eleven Japanese releases. Not only can you play the games, but enhance them in certain ways, making them even better than they were back in the day. You can watch a computerized expert play through the game and jump in whenever you want.
You can also go to the Turtle’s Lair and find hundreds of pages Konami’s design documents, screenshots of the TV show, comic book covers, listen to music soundtracks, and more, and more, and more. There are more incredible bonus features packed into the turtles’ lair than I think we’ve ever done in a Digital Eclipse collection. So this is the definitive collection for fans of these games. We did not call it the “Cowabunga Collection” because we liked the alliteration, but because it is a gung-ho, leave everything on the field, huge collection.
Q: Which is the most challenging entry in The Cowabunga Collection? Should players tackle the collection in any particular order?
Murakami: I guess the most notoriously difficult title is the NES game. But as Chris mentioned, you have save features, rewind features, and Digital Eclipse actually had an expert run through it, and while they don’t get a perfect run, you can jump in and play at any time during the playthrough. You can watch the expert clear a difficult section, then jump in and play yourself. So no matter how difficult these games are, there is a way to get through them. And—Chris had a huge hand in this—there is a huge strategy guide for all of the games. If you just want some tips or advice, you can check that out. So the level of help you want to receive is up to you.
In terms of order to play them in—whatever you like. You could do chronological order; start with NES, onto the arcade, and then Turtles in Time on the SNES on to tournament fighters, and you can see the progression as new characters are added from the show and the comics, since these games came out around the same time as the TV show.
Kohler: Yeah, there is definitely no order that players should follow. These are all completely unique games and very few people played through all thirteen of them. Unless you had two arcade cabinets and four different consoles in your house when you were a kid, you probably didn’t get to experience all of these. So I want people to be able to play a brand-new Turtles game, or return to a game they maybe bounced off of in the past. Not just swimming through the water level on the NES and getting nailed by the seaweed. We have the rewind feature which is great for clearing those sections.
But Radical Rescue, which Charles mentioned, is actually a Metroidvania-style game that is very rare on the GameBoy and not a lot of people have played it. The strategy guide is very useful for finding all the hidden power ups, and the save and load feature is great. That game has some really tough boss fights, so being able to save at the beginning and try it over and over again that can be a big help in terms of letting everybody see every part of these games. And that’s really what I want. I want everybody to be able to experience all of these games.
Q: Do you have any tips or tricks for new players to try in co-op?
Kohler: Side-scrolling beat ‘em up games are fairly straightforward: don’t get hit. [Laughing] Actually that is a tip! Each of the turtles has a column in the strategy guide, and Raph’s is called Raph’s Rants. One of his tips is: if you want to take less damage, get hit less. The first turtles’ game has some really tricky parts, so we give you clues on how to beat them; like walking over a gap instead of trying to jump it, which just will not work.
In a lot of these games, the famous. Konami Code makes an appearance. We tell you when and where to use it, and what you are going to get out of it. In other games you can use the code to unlock characters. Though, you can also use the enhancements menu if you don’t want to enter the code. In Tournament Fighters’ enhancement menu, for example, you can unlock all the boss characters. You can give yourself more lives in certain games. Jump to specific levels in other games. And other interesting enhancements you might not think of! So I would encourage everybody to explore the enhancement menus and see what you can do.
Q: Beat 'em up games have been enjoying something of a resurgence lately. Do you think this is driven by nostalgia for the 80s/90s or is there a deeper component behind the comeback?
Murakami: I think it’s both. The simplicity of a beat ‘em up is—I don’t want to say timeless—but they are easy to pick up and play. Now that we have online play, friends can get together more easily. Cooperative Twitch streams are also taking off as well. So I think all these things are coming together in a kind of perfect storm.
Kohler: There was a time in the mid-to-late 90s, shortly after the last games in this collection were released, where people thought all games in the future would be in 3D. It was like, “2D games are old.” That’s obsolete. And really, that just wasn’t the case. Those games were a very particular art-form that had a unique appeal to them. And for all the advancements made by 3D games, there is something about that 2D, side-scrolling beat ‘em up genre that still resonates now. And I love it that people are playing newly made, 2D beat ‘em up games, because it primes people to revisit older games like Turtles in Time. So here they are in one convenient package. There you go.
Murakami: The interesting thing about nostalgia is—I actually did a little did a poll around the office with different age groups—and some people remember the arcade games, others started with the NES or tournament fighters, and people slightly younger than me only started playing the Gameboy titles. We want to make sure we put in as many of the titles as we can. Because nostalgia for a game is different depending on who you ask. Nostalgia runs the gamut.
Kohler: Yeah, we’ve got arcade style brawlers. Those are the most well-known games. When you look at Ninja Turtles for the NES, you’ve got this non-linear overworld with levels of an action platformer. Even Fall of the Foot Clan for the Gameboy is more like one of Konami’s action style games. It almost has a shooter-feel; like a combo shooter/platformer. And then you have a Metroidvania-style game in Radical Rescue with a huge map to explore. You also have three 1v1 fighting games, including pretty much the only game of that style on the 8-bit NES.
And those three Tournament Fighters games have the same name, but they are completely different. It’s not even slight changes; they are completely distinct games from the ground up. It’s actually quite a wide variety of different genres and experiences here, which might not be immediately apparent.
Q: What are your thoughts and impressions of Shredder's Revenge?
Kohler: Amazing. I played it with my wife and 7-year-old and we were just absolutely glued to it until we were done. Selfishly, I love that it makes so many references to the classic games. Like the final boss battle in Times Square, with 3AM on the clock behind you, referencing that first level in Turtles in Time. Like, how cool is that? I hope it causes a lot of people to say “oh, I want to play more games like this!” but from an artistic perspective, I was totally blown away by it. It didn’t need to be as amazing as it was, but it was.
Murakami: Yeah, and in terms of references, ot definitely hearkens back to what Konami did with their original games. This collection is a great place to see where those references originate. For our collection, there are a lot of references to the TV shows and Nickelodeon allowed us to get screenshots from the shows, so we can show players where all of these characters come from.
Nickelodeon also helped us get in touch with IDW, so we got a ton of comic book covers. Like the Archie Comics, is where Wingnut comes from. What’s cool is that we have over a thousand pieces of art, and Chris created a search function, so you can filter by ”Wingnut” and get all the comic references, show references, and game references where Wingnut shows up.
Kohler: Yes, just, whenever Charles says “Chris,” just mentally insert “Digital Eclipse.” We have an incredible team of engineers, artists, and designers, and this is really one of the deepest collections we’ve ever done.
Q: How do you feel the recent release of Shredder’s Revenge might impact the perception of this collection?
Kohler: It’s hard to say, but I think a rising tides lifts all boats. A lot of people have been very excited. I’ve heard people saying things to the effect of “Turtles fans are eating really well in 2022.” It’s everything you could want. The new game, the old games; I think that it is only a great benefit to everybody.
Murakami: Yes! As a fan myself, I’m happy to see all the TMNT fans come out, and they are happy as well, and that’s just all I want to see.
Kohler: If I wasn’t working on this collection myself, I would just be over the moon that it’s coming out soon. Really, really. I wanted a Turtles’ collection for a long time. And to be making it; it’s like, “Well, I didn’t expect that, but okay!”
Murakami: Speaking of fans, I mentioned this at Comic Con, but we had the Gradius and Contra collections back in 2019. But it was really the fans who said “Give us a TMNT collection!” that made it easy for me to pitch it within the company, because I could say “Listen, this is what the fans want.” So the TMNT fans have been with us for a very long time and helped us a lot in getting this project off the ground.
Q: What is the most important aspect of a satisfying beat 'em up, and why do you think the TMNT games have stood the test of time?
Murakami: One of the craziest things—If you look at the design doc—the emphasis on animation. Each of the characters has a lot of moves, but there are also lots of ways to get hurt. They can get toasted—you know, in comical fashion—frozen, electrocuted, hit against the walls, and so on. And you can see that Konami just kept adding things to give it that cartoon feel. And that has rarely been replicated. It was extraordinary back in the day. The move animations, hurt animations, and facial expressions… It takes so much work to do, and the fact that they did it back then is reflective even now.
Kohler: I would just say that a good beat ‘em up has to make you hungry. I’m playing these games to watch a character smash an oil drum and reveal a giant turkey, or in the case of a turtles game, eating an entire, steaming pizza pie. By the end of it, I’d better be really hungry. That to me is the mark of a great beat ‘em up.
Murakami: It is a good-looking pizza.
Kohler: It is!
Q: Can you tell us about the differences between the Tournament Fighters Games?
Kohler: Tournament Fighters on SNES is pretty straight forward. The story is that they are having a televised martial arts tournament, and your score is measured in dollars. So people are competing for money. And after each win, you are interviewed by April O’Neil in the Channel Six Studio. Whereas for the Genesis version, it is more of a science-fiction story where the turtles go to Dimension X to fight their own evil clones. And in that one, April O’Neil is a fighter and not just a background character. And on the NES, Shredder is just like “Hey,Turtles! Come fight me in the street!” So nobody’s kidnaped or anything, it’s basically just a big street brawl. So characters like Shredder, and Hothead, and the Turtles, just go out into the street and punch each other for funsies.
On the NES, there are bunch of interesting mechanics, like you can’t use your fireball move until a certain item drops. Konami was trying to make a conventional 1V1 fighter on the NES, which really isn’t equipped to do that, but they did a pretty dang decent job at it. So there’s some interesting stuff there.
Murakami: To put the three games in perspective: in the NES you can jump really far. So it becomes kind of an aerial timing game. Genesis is much more grounded; has a lot of horizontal movement. And the SNES version is kind of in between. You have a lot more fireballs, and a lot of supers that result in specific spacing. It’s almost hard to compare them because they are so different. All the characters play completely differently in each game. So even if you pick Leonardo in all three games, he will play completely differently.
The historical reason why the NES Tournament Fighters was so important was that it was Konami’s last NES game ever made, and it was never released in Japan. And one of the first Konami games on the NES was VR Kung-Fu, so you can see the progression just between those two titles.
Q: Do you think the Cowabunga Collection will resonate with younger gamers who grew up on more recent iterations of the Turtles, like Nickelodeon's 2012 series?
Kohler: I really hope so! I think this is going to be amazing. First of all, “Wow! Isn’t it incredible what a lifespan the Turtles have had and continue to have?” The other stuff I grew up with is not nearly as relevant as the Turtles are now. People who played these games when they were kids now have their own kids.
I am so looking forward to playing these games with my son, whom I played Shredder’s Revenge with. And I think they will resonate, because that basic gameplay is as solid as it was. These games have aged very, very well. But that’s what I’m really hoping here; to see parents introduce their kids to these games, especially since so many of them are cooperative. I think that is going to happen, and I really want to see that.
Murakami: Yeah, I actually had not played several of these games myself. Like, I had not played Manhattan Project or Radical Rescue, and as I was playing them, I was like: “Oh my God. These are really good!” And it took me over thirty years to play them, but they still hold up really well!
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the Turtles’ Lair 'development art' and 'historic TMNT media' included in the Cowabunga Collection?
Kohler: Yes. So here’s the basic stuff: brand-new, hi-resolution scans of every game’s box, and every page of their manuals—US and Japanese. You’ve got design documents. Charles, do you want to talk a little bit about how we found those design documents?
Murakami: It took a while, but there is an archive facility in Japan, and they didn’t know how much they had, but we sent a team to check how much had been preserved. We had a facetime, and they brought out a box with binders in it. And each binder had 100s of pages of design docs. Pitch points. Concept docs. Concept art. Level design notes, it kept going and going. And they were like: “Is any of this interesting?” And like, “Yes! This is great!” And then they pulled out the second binder, Volume 2, and these were both for just the first NES game. It just kept on going. And after we finished that box, they pulled out one for Manhattan Project.
One of the cool things about working with Digital Eclipse is, I just showed Chris these scans, and asked him “which of these should we include in the game?” And immediately, Chris said, “All of them!” But most of these were in Japanese pencil scratches. So not only were they uploaded, but translated, so you can see what was written in your language. My localization time suddenly exploded, but it was totally worth it.
Kohler: [Laughing] So basically yes, the design documents are in there for many of the games. It’s very extensive. Everything from animation sketches, and early level designs, so you can really see how these games came together. And because they are translated, it will take you literal hours to read through every document if you want to do that.
And it’s not just design documents. There are pages out of the Mirage Studios style guide from the 90s; the sort of thing Konami’s animators would have been referencing. All of the soundtracks are individually playable in the Turtle’s Lair. As Charles said, there are screenshots from the show, comic book covers, and am I forgetting things? I probably am. The strategy guide we talked about is also accessible through the Turtles’ Lair.
Oh! And Magazine advertisements. I went to the Strong Museum of play in Rochester New York. We found not only ads from game magazines and stuff, but there is trade show stuff in there that has never been shown to the public. Press releases, and trade show pamphlet with early versions of the box art. There is so much detail in the Turtles’ Lair.
And as Charles said, Digital Eclipse integrated a search functionality that you control with filters. So you can say: “I want to see comic book covers featuring April O’Neil,” and it will pull up every comic book cover featuring April. You can say: “I want to see a 16-bit ad featuring Leonardo,” and you will get every piece of promotion featuring Leonardo for games on SNES or the Genesis. And everything is entered this way. Anything that is a proper noun that has a name is listed in this.
It's just a way to let people plumb the depths of what’s in there, because there is almost 2000 individual pieces of media in the Turtles’ Lair. And it’s all done in a cool 3D render of the Turtles Lair.
Q: What can you share about the eleven Japanese regional releases included in the collection?
Kohler: In general, the differences between these games seem to be really subtle. What’s fun is, when you go to the main menu screen, there’s a button for “change region,” and all the regional artwork will shift. There is an optional boarder around game play area that will use the Japanese Artwork as well. You also get translated versions of the Japanese titles.
The NES title was actually one of the first pieces of Turtles’ media to hit Japan, the brand wasn’t really established yet; so they changed the title from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” to “Geki Kame Ninjaden,” which translates to “Legend of the Extreme Ninja Turtles.” And Tournament Fighters for the SNES is called “Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors.” We really wanted to preserve the context of these different versions, and there are subtle differences.
Murakami: It wasn’t a trivial thing to do either, because the Nintendo and the Famicom don’t really work the same way. So the folks at Digital Eclipse had to adjust the games to make sure they worked the same way as they did originally. It was a lot of hard work, but we knew the fans would want those versions, just for historical significance.
Kohler: Yeah! We wanted to keep our fans in Japan in mind too. We didn’t want to take an ethnocentric approach to this. Again, Japanese players have specific memories of specific versions of these games, and we wanted to make sure everybody is covered in that respect.
Q: What was the most challenging part of putting together this compilation? Did you run into any difficulties with emulation or incorporating online play?
Kohler: Every game is like its own list of challenges. Adding online to these classic games was one of them. The real challenge is the bar we set for ourselves. We set a high bar for ourselves, and kept raising it. We could have done this with less effort, but neither Konami nor Digital Eclipse, neither Charles nor I, wanted to settle for that. This could be our only shot to do a Turtles collection, so it had to be the best right out of the gate.
Q: How did you decide which games would be receiving online play as opposed to couch co-op?
Kohler: The thought process was, the two arcade games are four-player co-op, so they would benefit the most from online play. We wanted the Super NES version of Tournament Fighters to be represented because it was really the version that was embraced by the fighting game community.
And again, we wanted to include Hyperstone Heist to represent the people who grew up with a Sega Genesis.
Q: Is there anything else you would like readers to know?
Murakami: It’s coming out very soon. On August 30th. We also have a limited edition with art by Kevin Eastman.The cover art occurs between scene one and scene two of the arcade game, after the Turtles have lept out of the building, with Shredder carrying April under one arm. So this art shows Shredder escaping on the Technodrome, as the Turtles fight the Foot Clan.
Kohler: I want people to know, there is so much more to this collection than simply a collection of classic game binaries. The context around them. The ways you can enhance the games and change your own approach to these games. I really feel that this is something that will give these games a new life; something that earns new fans rather than a simple nostalgia play. And at Digital Eclipse we are so grateful to have such a great partner in Konami. I want to express how grateful I am that I got to make a Ninja Turtles game, which is pretty incredible. And I just hope people enjoy what we’ve put together here.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection releases on August 30, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.