Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection does a lot of things well, but its peculiar launch online choices and varying game quality might make it a tougher sell for those who aren’t familiar with earlier Mortal Kombat games. Still, there are a few great titles included in this collection, and an impressive amount of bonus content, so diehard Mortal Kombat fans are in for a treat.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Price: $50
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS5 code for review.
As a son of parents who adhered to ESRB ratings, I largely missed out on most Mortal Kombat games from before the PS2 era. I would get deeply into the series in later years, but I always had difficulty revisiting anything from the franchise’s truly early days. As such, the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection felt like a perfect way for me to do so, and I’m largely glad I did.
Before diving into each game a little bit, I’ll discuss the collection’s universal traits. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection has a grand amount of additional materials, like flyers and instruction manuals for each game. They’re of insanely high quality, so browsing through the ads and booklets is a delight that really warps you back decades. There’s also a lot of behind-the-scenes content that offers meticulous insight into the series’ development, which is really a Digital Eclipse staple at this point. Once again, nobody does collections quite like them.
There are tons of options to make each game play exactly how you’d like it to. You can toggle things like an unlimited Fatality timer, secret character availability, difficulty, and the like, as well as the very useful feature of having special moves and Fatality inputs displayed on the screen during play. All of these inclusions, especially the rewind option, given the difficulty of the earlier games, make this a much more accessible way to experience Mortal Kombat’s early days.
Unfortunately, online in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is something of a mess at the moment. Though Digital Eclipse plans to add lobbies and the like to the game in a few weeks, the presence of only Quick Play at launch is a bizarre choice. It’s a bit of a pain to play with people intentionally at this time, so I’m not sure why the game would launch without lobbies when it could have been briefly delayed instead.
Mortal Kombat
A whopping five different versions of Mortal Kombat are available in this package – Arcade, Genesis, SNES, Game Boy, and Game Gear. Going through the different ports is a rather interesting experience, especially since selecting each game will provide you with a little spiel about what sets each version apart. As such, you can know which versions have the iconic Mortal Kombat gore, which ones cut characters, and so on.
The first game in the series is admittedly a little rough in terms of gameplay, though it’s still impressive for its time. A lot of staples were established here, from a good chunk of the iconic characters to the realistic graphics and hard-hitting gameplay. There’s a weight to punches and kicks that feels harder than in other fighting games, which is rather satisfying, though combos feel pretty clunky. The Arcade version is naturally the best, but there’s a nostalgic element to playing the home console versions, having played them at friends’ houses as a kid.
The Game Boy version is sort of a mess, running super slowly and making it incredibly hard to tell what’s happening. Of course, that’s to be expected from such console limitations, so it’s neat that it was included as a curiosity of sorts, if nothing else. The Game Gear one is surprisingly better thanks to its more transparent colors and more accurate speed, though you’ll likely just check this one out to see what it’s like.
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection features five versions of the sequel, too – Arcade, Genesis, SNES, Game Boy, and 32X. Thanks to additional characters and small gameplay changes that improve the flow of battle, Mortal Kombat II does age better than its predecessor, even if it’s still a little rough around the edges.
The introduction of more iconic characters like Shao Kahn and Kitana makes this one feel a step closer to the franchise as we know it now. New moves are included, and combos feel way easier to pull off, making for a much more satisfying fighting game. Having Friendships, Babalities, Stage Fatalities, and a bunch of new Fatalities is wonderful too, as it expands upon the most unique thing about this era of Mortal Kombat – the now-comical gore. The secret fighters are another highlight, with Noob, Smoke, and Jade all making their mysterious and memorable debut here, with Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection making it easier than ever to be/fight them through a toggle – a much-appreciated addition.
Once again, the Arcade version is the way to go, though the Genesis, SNES, and 32X versions are solid, with the 32X being the equivalent of the SNES port. This Game Boy port is a little better than the first game’s, but it’s still pretty far from enjoyable for similar reasons.
(Ultimate) Mortal Kombat 3
With Mortal Kombat 3, you get the Arcade, SNES, and Genesis versions, as well as the Arcade and SNES versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (more on that shortly). One of the coolest inclusions in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the long-lost WaveNet version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which was thought to be lost for quite some time. It was a briefly tested build of the game that would allow the arcade machine to receive updates through the internet, plus, it had Noob Saibot in it. It’s not all that different from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but having it finally be available through a collection like this is absolutely awesome.
Mortal Kombat 3 is where the series really finds its footing. The new characters are fantastic additions, the inclusion of a run button makes aggressive play more doable, and the series’s now-famous dial-a-combos make their debut alongside bonuses like Animalities and multi-leveled stages. This is where the series truly kicks off, and it holds up remarkably well as an endlessly fun fighter. The opponent AI can be a bit of a pain, but you do have to expect that a bit from games that were originally arcade titles of the era.
That being said, the real highlight of the whole package is the improved version – Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It’s got two-on-two battles, new moves, stages, and even additional characters – both in the base roster and through cheat codes. It’s the peak version of Mortal Kombat 3, and I’ll be playing it a fair bit with friends in the future through this package.
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
From this point on, each game is only presented with one console version. Mortal Kombat Trilogy is sort of like a combination of the first three games, with stages and characters from all three being present alongside Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3’s smooth and buttery fighting. Once again, the opponent AI feels a bit unfair (I could swear it was reading my inputs as soon as I entered them at times), which can be a bit frustrating.
Still, including aspects of all three previous games to create one massive, definitive package is a slick move, making for a strong game that holds up pretty well.
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
This is one of the lesser games included in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. I should theoretically love a Sub-Zero-oriented beat-em-up, but the visuals are ugly, and the gameplay is slow and way too janky for me. I respect that this is included in the collection despite its quality, as it helps provide a truly rounded and informed perspective on the Mortal Kombat franchise’s timeline as a whole.
Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4 was the series’s first foray into 3D, and it holds up decently well. There’s a good balance of new and returning characters, the addition of weapons mixes things up, and the core tenets of the franchise are intact and surprisingly solid in the third dimension. The weapons, in particular, are fascinating to revisit years later, as weapon styles and similar elements have evolved throughout the series.
I do wish there were still more of the silly aspects of past games, like Babalities and Friendships, but I can understand that the team was aiming to further the violent/darker sides of the series here. I have vivid memories of seeing this game in a theatre arcade and being shocked by it, so I had a lot of fun revisiting the game as an adult with much more experience with the franchise.
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is a mess all around. Though a Jax-centered spin-off that has you hunting down Black Dragon fighters and the like is a cool idea, it’s not fun to play in any way whatsoever. Combat is disastrous, environments are bland, and the camera angle is a bit unpleasant. Another interesting inclusion that’s more intriguing than enjoyable.
Mortal Kombat Advance, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition
Mortal Kombat Advance is essentially a Game Boy Advance port of Mortal Kombat 3. It’s not great, though not as awful as the earlier Game Boy ports. It’s not quite as sluggish as that, but some of the weighty feeling behind combat is gone, making it come off as a bit clunky. Overall, it’s not especially memorable.
Deadly Alliance is more impressive, going for a pseudo-3D vibe by having detailed 2D character sprites battle in a 3D environment. It looks a bit messy, but it’s an impressive attempt at something a bit more unique than a simple port. The combat certainly lines up better with the then-3D Mortal Kombat style, even if it’s obviously not quite as smooth as the console games. Finally, Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition is a more robust take on Deadly Alliance, adding more characters to round out the roster. They’re neat little sideshows, though not the best games in the collection.
The Final Word
The Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is another strong collection from Digital Eclipse, despite some strange missteps. The included games and ports range in quality, but they’re presented with the excellence we’ve come to expect from the devs. The online is frustratingly limited at launch, but the bonus content and various available ports make this worth checking out if you have any interest in the series’s early days.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
