Just before the Top 6 of Street Fighter 6 at EVO, Capcom sent out CAP-JAMS, their in-house band who made the music for the game, to come out and play several songs first. CAP-JAMS then proceeded to play Luke’s theme song and then Jamie’s theme song. Okay, that was fun but I’ve already heard these songs ad nauseam as Capcom already released these songs in their entirety on YouTube months ago. Then, they started to play a ditty that wasn’t a part of Street Fighter 6’s soundtrack or any other Capcom game for that matter. But the song was still very familiar. That’s because the song was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song from the 80’s cartoon.

This was a head scratching moment for me as I thought there was no way Capcom would actually be making a collaboration with Nickelodeon to include the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters as part of the Street Fighter 6 roster. I mean, NetherRealm Studios did this exact thing when they allowed the Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, in Injustice 2. But I don’t think the TMNT would fit in the world of Street Fighter 6, no matter how weirdly cool that would be.

Of course, I was being stupid as it was soon revealed that Capcom was indeed collaborating with Nickelodeon but it wasn’t to bring the Turtles into the roster. Instead, it looks like the deal is more of getting the likeness of the TMNT so you can dress up your Avatar in Street Fighter 6’s World Tour and Battle Hub modes as the Heroes in a Half-Shell as well as some emotes. That made much more sense.

However, when the Street Fighter 6 x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collaboration was made available in the game, a lot of fans bemoaned a lot of things about how it was implemented. For one thing, you can only equip the TMNT skins on your Avatar. You cannot have an actual Street Fighter character put it on. That’s kind of sad as I would love to see an official Capcom tournament use these skins. Just the idea of someone picking Ryu and choosing the Leonardo costume to win something like the Capcom Cup would blow everyone’s mind.

This also goes for the other TMNT bells and whistles from this collab. You can just equip the masks on your avatar and not have Juri or the other characters from the official roster put them on. You can also have your Avatar perform new emotes, like stuffing their faces with pizza, which is actually pretty cool looking. I should know; I got it. Still, it’s just a cosmetic thing and really doesn’t add a whole lot if you’re just into Street Fighter 6 for the actual fighting.

However, the biggest complaint I and most fans have with this Street Fighter x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collab is how expensive everything in this collab is. Each costume costs 750 Fighter Coins, Street Fighter 6’s in-game currency. This comes out to be around $15 US each! The masks are 250 Fighter Coins, which is around $5 US each! I’m not even including the emotes and the other small stuff, like banners and frames. Suffice to say, if you really want to get each and every virtual item in this collab, you’ll have to spend a whole chuck of real money to do so!

This has led to some people bemoaning Capcom regarding how much they’ve jacked up the price for these items. To which, I can kind of understand. Having to pay $15 US for a single costume in a fighting game is already a lot of money traditionally. But to think that these costumes can’t even be put on your favorite fighter makes it seem a little more absurd. However, I’m not wholly sure if this is Capcom’s fault. I’m pretty sure Nickelodeon wants some of the moolah for licensing the popular characters they own the trademark to. I’m guessing that’s included in the price point. Still, it just seems very greedy of them, doesn’t it?

So, you would think I would really hate this collab, wouldn’t you? Well, no. Not really. I mean, I’m not exactly giving it a thumbs up or anything like that. It’s just not for me but I do think the concept is cool. Having Capcom go out and partner with other companies with cool IPs feels really inclusive. This opens the door for other popular franchises to get in on the action. Wouldn’t you want to see something like equipping a Luffy costume on Dhalsim when the collab with One Piece. Or maybe have Chun-Li dress up as Yor from Spy X Family in the future. The latter is totally possible as Capcom already put out some official collab artwork for it! You never know!

Also, I wasn’t really big on TMNT in their heyday so the Street Fighter X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t for me. I mean, I got the pizza eating emote because it looked cool and that’s it! I have no plans to get any of the Turtles costumes because I can’t really justify paying $15 US for a single solitary costume I can’t put on any of the official Street Fighter roster. But I can bet there are some TMNT fans who are more than willing to do so.

That’s because Street Fighter 6 is not just for the hardcore fighting game fanatic. It’s also something that a lot of casual fans are enjoying now. After all, the number of copies of Street Fighter 6 that have been sold has already hit 2 million! That’s a lot of people playing the game and I’m assuming a good number of people who got the game are not exactly the hardcore audience.

A good number of people playing Street Fighter 6 aren’t grinding online to reach the Master rank or extensively going into Practice mode to test out this one combo they think will work. No, a lot of them are just going into Battle Hub and playing against people online in a more casual setting, enjoying the arcade mode in Fighting Ground or just trying to complete World Tour mode. And I’m guessing that, if they are TMNT fans, they’re willing to buy at least the Turtle they like the most just to see them run around Metro City in World Tour or have their have their Avatar into the Battle Hub dressed as Donatello and beat up Raphael in Battle Hub.

I do see the Street Fighter X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collaboration as mostly a net positive. It’s not for me nor for most of the pro players. However, this is not really for them. This is more for the casual who just like messing around in Street Fighter and who just so happens to like the TMNT. And we do need to keep the casual players happy as, while they might not go to tournaments or might not even care who becomes the next Capcom Cup winner, they are a big reason as to why games like Street Fighter 6 have hit 2 million in sales. They are a huge part of the fighting game community as they do like fighting games. So, Capcom, bring on the next collab. Hopefully, it’ll be something I’d be more interested in.

What do you think of Capcom partnering with Nickelodeon for the Street Fighter X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collaboration? Let me know in the comments section below!