Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Review – Flawless Victory for Retro Fans

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Review

There’s no denying that Mortal Kombat was a cultural phenomenon in the 90s. It’s the series that got the closest to Street Fighter’s crown as the top 2D fighting game series. The franchise has seen lots of ups and downs, but since Mortal Kombat 9, every series entry has been a classic. Because the series is so popular today, many players have been wondering why we haven’t had access to the classic games on modern consoles. Well, the wait is over, and Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is an exhaustive package of all the games and spin-offs surrounding the first four Klassic games in the series.

The games found in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection are Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. There are multiple versions of each game, and some variations, including Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mortal Kombat Advance, the GameBoy Advance version of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition.

Arcade Perfect

The main versions of each game are the arcade versions. As someone who mainly played Mortal Kombat on Super Nintendo, I was shocked to see how much better the arcade games looked. I think there was some disconnect between me playing on Super Nintendo, then seeing YouTube content over the years using arcade footage, and me not realizing the quality discrepancy.

The first game in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection timeline is the original Mortal Kombat. There multiple versions, including arcade, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, GameBoy, and Game Gear. This is my least favorite of the classic Mortal Kombat games, mainly because of its small roster. There are some iconic characters exclusive to it though. Lots of players prefer the Sega Genesis version because of its blood code, but the best version of every game in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the arcade version.

Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat II is the game I played the most as a kid. There are versions for arcade, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Sega 32X, and GameBoy. Mortal Kombat II plays a bit less stiff than Mortal Kombat, and it has a larger roster filled with classic characters.

Mortal Kombat 3 has the most versions of any game. There are arcade, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo versions of the vanilla version. But there’s no reason to play the vanilla version because Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 has gameplay tweaks, and a much larger roster. Of the 2D Mortal Kombat games, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 feels the best to play today. It has versions for arcade and Super Nintendo. But there’s a second arcade version called the WaveNet version, which was an online arcade cabinet that had a few more characters. Mortal Kombat Advance is also a version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

My preferred way to play the 2D Mortal Kombat games today is Mortal Kombat Trilogy. It was a PS1 exclusive that combined Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 into one game. It also made Goro, Kintaro, Shao Khan, and Motaro playable characters from the main menu. The original version isn’t loved because of its ridiculous load times, but Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection has eliminated all its load times, and fixed all its bugs.

Mortal Kombat 4 only has its arcade version. I used to play it on the N64, but that version is quite a bit worse than the arcade version. Although only the first three MK games get the exhaustive “every version” treatment, it’s wonderful that the best version of Mortal Kombat 4 is in this collection. It’s the first Mortal Kombat game to transition to 3D. It added a lot of characters, and added a weapon fighting stance. The new character designs are very bland compared to the other games though. And very few characters returned.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero

I was overjoyed to find out that Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was included in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. It’s an awful platforming action game that uses fighting game controls. The platforming is incredibly imprecise, and the difficulty is ludicrous. But it has an awesome story that heavily adds to the Mortal Kombat lore, told with FMV cutscenes. Only the PS1 version is included, as the N64 version didn’t have video, just still images.

Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is another awful PS1-exclusive spin-off game. It’s a 3D beat ‘em up starring Jax that’s just plain bland. But many have grown to love it for its late 90s/ early 2000s aesthetics. I was very happy to see it included in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection.

Handheld Versions

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is the sequel to Mortal Kombat Advance. It’s very different from the PS2 version, which is a sequel to Mortal Kombat 4. This version is a 2D fighting game in 3D environments. Because of its visuals, it’s impressive that Deadly Alliance was a handheld game, but it’s also so choppy that it’s basically unplayable. It and Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition are similar in that they’re really only in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection for a complete collection of all the 2D Mortal Kombat games.

When a game is selected, there’s a choice between playing the game or starting Versus Mode from the main menu. There are separate modes for training, and practicing Fatalities for each game. Before selecting a game, players can view instruction manuals, arcade controls, and print advertisements. Controls can also be changed from the main menu.

Lots of Options

Holding the touchpad during gameplay brings up an options menu with character move lists, and the option to toggle on/ off an on-screen move list. There are options to turn on secret characters, turn off rewind, make the round timer unlimited, and make the Fatality time unlimited. Screen size, CRT filters, and borders can be changed. Unfortunately, these settings have to be changed individually for each game. As someone who hates borders, this was annoying. The player can also save, load, reset, and quit from the options menu. I didn’t love that, to bring up the options menu while playing, the player has to hold down the touch pad. I wish there was an option to change it to a button press. Not being able to instantly bring up a movelist was more annoying than I thought it would be. Although the always onscreen movelist option helped with this.

Almost all the versions of each game can be played online with rollback netcode. There are options for connection strength, cross-region matchmaking, input lag, and controls. There’s also a “Kombat Kard” that tracks the player’s online stats, and saves replays. I didn’t even realize that some games had arcade multiplayer options that couldn’t be easily replicated on consoles. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, for example, has a four-player 2-on-2 versus mode, and an eight-player tournament mode. The online options make the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection essential for any long time Mortal Kombat fan.

Digital Eclipse Interactive Timeline

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection was developed by Digital Eclipse, in line with their phenomenal Atari 50 and Tetris Forever collections. They created another feature-length documentary, with interviews from series creators, and loads of archival footage. The documentary covers the creation of the games, the controversy they created, the expansion of the franchise, and the series legacy. It’s presented as an interactive timeline with videoclips mixed with images and text. The entire timeline easily took me six hours to get through. This documentary is worth the price of admission alone.

The Krypt portion of the main menu has a section called “Kombatants”. It’s a timeline of the entire Mortal Kombat series that goes character by character. Players can look at what each character looks like in each game, get their backstory, read their bios from each game, and see their endings for each game. There’s also a jukebox with complete soundtracks from every game.

A Dream Come True

The Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a dream come true for Mortal Kombat fans. There are multiple versions of every Mortal Kombat game, up to, and including, Mortal Kombat 4. The package has exhaustive extras, including a long documentary about the history of the series. Almost every game has online play with rollback netcode. And Mortal Kombat Trilogy has its load times and bugs fixed, so players can have every character in one game. My only complaints are minor, and that some of the games are awful. But I’m so glad those awful games are included, for completion’s sake and for nostalgic reasons. If you have any love for Mortal Kombat, the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a must-buy. It’s arguably the best retro game collection of all-time.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher***