TMNT The Cowabunga Collection Gets Massive New Update

TMNT The Cowabunga Collection added a huge update with improvement fixes and multiplayer for Turtles in Time.

By Jason Collins | Published

tmnt cowabunga collection

The developer of the previously announced TMNT The Cowabunga Collection, Digital Eclipse, has teased a brand-new update for the game. According to IGN, the update is supposed to bring several improvements and fixes to the bundle and increase the online functionality across all 13 games included in the collection. The gaming collection was released some four months ago, and it’s still among Steam’s bestsellers.

The list of TMNT The Cowabunga Collection updates and fixed issues are quite extensive; among the more notable ones are added support for PlayStation and Xbox controllers, as well as various joysticks. Additionally, the increased online functionality for Turtles in Time now includes a full multiplayer component — it would seem that oldies-but-goldies are looking up to the modern titles, which usually get multiplayer post-launch. Konami and Digital Eclipse have also announced full multiplayer support for several other games within the collection as part of future updates.

The current TMNT The Cowabunga Collection update, on the other hand, deals with the recently added online functionalities mentioned above. These include a customizable lobby size for two bundled arcade games, as well as an automatic frame delay option. The latter, as its name suggests, automates the configuration of frame delay settings based on the hardware’s current processing load to better adjust for the input lag depending on the number of players.

tmnt cowabunga collection turtles in time

Other changes include a redesigned Home icon, customizable lobby size, enhancements for various game tournament modes, Ultimate Attack Toggles, adjustable number of lives, adjustable difficulty, limited button mapping, and several other setting options. The addition of these options is bound to make gameplay easier, as it adds options that weren’t previously present in the original games. This takes TMNT The Cowabunga Collection to a level or re-release, rather than an emulated bundle of games—much to the happiness of those who played the originals.

Digital Eclipse caused quite a bit of commotion when it first announced the TMNT The Cowabunga Collection, mainly because the original games are becoming more and more impossible to find or even play on modern consoles. Sure, fans could always dust off their old Sega Genesis and wonder where the HDMI goes and what the strange circular port is. You can find modded Sega Genesis consoles with HDMI ports installed online, but their price is often exorbitant and not justifiable.

The absence of games, and the native hardware that could run them, made the games inaccessible to fans. Luckily, Digital Eclipse bundled a baker’s dozen of these into a single gaming collection that’s available to fans for the first time in more than two decades. Some of these games are available in their original form, but you’ll likely have to use emulation software which isn’t always coded adequately and often runs into hardware compatibility issues, making them barely playable. In fact, the hardware required to run God of War 2 on a PC is more in line with PlayStation 4 rather than PS2.

Regardless, the new collection solved any compatibility issues and made TMNT The Cowabunga Collection available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.