Legacy Kollection Review – Flawless Victory for Retro Fans

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection review

There's no doubt that Mortal Kombat was a cultural phenomenon of the 90s. This is the series that comes closest to Street fighteris the crown of the best 2D fighting game series. The franchise has seen many ups and downs, but since then… Mortal Kombat 9every entry in the series was a classic. Since the series is so popular today, many players are wondering why we don't have access to classic games on modern consoles. Well, the wait is over, and Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a comprehensive package of all the games and spin-offs associated with the first four classic games in the series.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes the following games: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. There are several versions of each game and several 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 primarily played Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo, I was shocked to see how much better the arcade games looked. I think there was a bit of a disconnect between me playing on the Super Nintendo, then watching YouTube content using arcade footage over the years, and not realizing the discrepancy in quality.

The first game in the history of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the original Mortal Kombat. There are several versions, including arcade, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, GameBoy and Game Gear. This is my least favorite of the classic Mortal Kombat games, mainly due to the small cast. However, there are some iconic characters that are exclusive to it. Many players prefer the Sega Genesis version due to its blood code, but the best version of every Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection game is the arcade version.

Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat II was the game I played the most as a kid. There are versions for arcade machines, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Sega 32X and GameBoy. Mortal Kombat II is a little less gritty than Mortal Kombat and features a larger cast filled with classic characters.

Mortal Kombat 3 has the most versions of any other game. There are arcade versions of the vanilla version, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo versions. But there's no point in playing the vanilla version because Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 has gameplay tweaks and a much larger cast. Of the 2D Mortal Kombat games, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 seems to be the best to date. It has versions for arcade machines and Super Nintendo. But there is a second arcade version called the WaveNet version, which was an online arcade cabinet with a few more characters. Mortal Kombat Advance is also a version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Mortal Kombat trilogy

Today I prefer to play the 2D Mortal Kombat games – Mortal Kombat Trilogy. It was a PS1 exclusive that combined Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 into one game. This also made Goro, Kintaro, Shao Khan, and Motaro playable characters from the main menu. The original version was disliked for its ridiculous loading times, but Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection eliminates all loading times and fixes all the bugs.

Mortal Kombat 4 only has an arcade version. I used to play on the N64, but this version is a little worse than the arcade version. While only the first three MK games receive an exhaustive “every version” treatment, it's great that the best version of Mortal Kombat 4 is in this collection. This is the first Mortal Kombat game to go 3D. Many characters and weapon stances have been added. However, the new character designs are very boring compared to other games. And very few characters returned.

Mythologies of Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero

I was very happy to learn that Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was included in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. It's a terrible platformer that uses fighting game controls. The platforming is incredibly imprecise and the difficulty is ridiculous. But it has an amazing story that greatly adds to the Mortal Kombat lore, told through FMV cutscenes. Only the PS1 version is included as the N64 version did not have video and only still images.

Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is another terrible spin-off exclusive to the PS1. It's just a boring 3D battle game starring Jax. But many fell in love with it for its late 90s/early 2000s aesthetic. I was very happy to see it included in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection.

Portable versions

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is the sequel to Mortal Kombat Advance. It is very different from the PS2 version, which is a sequel to Mortal Kombat 4. This version is a 2D fighting game in a 3D environment. The visuals make it impressive that Deadly Alliance was a portable game, but it's so unstable that it's nearly unplayable. It and Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition are similar in that they are actually only found in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, which contains a complete collection of all 2D Mortal Kombat games.

Once a game is selected, you have the choice of playing it or starting Versus Mode from the main menu. Each game has separate training and fatality modes. Before selecting a game, players can view instruction manuals, arcade controls, and printed advertisements. Controls can also be changed from the main menu.

Lots of options

Holding down the touchpad while playing brings up an options menu with character move lists and the ability to toggle the on-screen move list on/off. It is possible to enable secret characters, disable rewinding, make the round timer unlimited and 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 boundaries, this was annoying. The player can also save, load, reset, and exit the options menu. I didn't like this: to open the options menu during the game, the player has to hold down the touchpad. I wish there was an option to change this to a button press. Not being able to instantly call up the move list was more annoying than I thought it would be. Although the option “Always displayed on the screen list of movements” helped with this.

Almost all versions of every game can be played online using rollback netcode. There are options for connection strength, cross-region matchmaking, input lag, and controls. There is also a “Combat Card” that tracks the player's online statistics and saves replays. I didn't even realize that some games had arcade-like multiplayer features that weren't easily replicated on consoles. For example, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 has a 2v2 versus mode for four players and a tournament mode for eight players. With online options, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a must-have for any longtime Mortal Kombat fan.

Digital Eclipse Interactive Timeline

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection was developed by Digital Eclipse based on their phenomenal Atari 50 and Tetris Forever collections. They created another feature-length documentary with interviews from the series' creators and plenty of archival footage. The documentary explores the creation of the games, the controversy they caused, the expansion of the franchise, and the legacy of the series. It is presented as an interactive timeline with video clips mixed with images and text. It took me six hours to complete the entire timeline. This documentary is worth the price of admission alone.

In the main menu of Krypt there is a section “Combatants”. This is a character by character timeline of the entire Mortal Kombat series. Players can see what each character looks like in each game, learn their backstory, read the bio of each game, and see the ending of each game. There is also a jukebox with full soundtracks from each game.

Dream come true

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a Mortal Kombat fan's dream. There are multiple versions of each Mortal Kombat game, up to and including Mortal Kombat 4. The package contains comprehensive extras, including a lengthy documentary about the history of the series. Almost every game has online play with netcode rollback. And Mortal Kombat Trilogy has fixed loading times and fixed bugs so players can have every character in the same game. My only complaints are minor and that some of the games are terrible. But I'm so glad these terrible games are included, for the sake of closure and nostalgic reasons. If you love Mortal Kombat, you definitely need to buy Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. This is perhaps the best collection of retro games of all time.

***PS5 code provided by publisher***