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Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Like Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration before it, the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is far more than just a digital portfolio of old video games. This is part interactive time machine, part documentary, part educational seminar, and part amalgamation of pixel perfect remasters. But most importantly, for fans of retro games and Mortal Kombat specifically, this is literally a dream come true. As a fan of retr0 gaming, game history, and generally learning about the origins of games and studios, packages like this are addictive and fascinating to me. Everything is presented in a sleek, digestible package with the games categorized by arcade, console, and handheld platforms, alongside a treasure trove of documentary-style footage, design documents, development notes, advertising materials, and more. More than a retro compilation, this is a digital museum of the first decade or so of the Mortal Kombat franchise and I absolutely love it. The Legacy of Mortal Kombat If you haven’t gathered by now, the start of the show with this collection for me is all of the documentary footage, design documents, commercials, memos, and more. Watching these interviews and reliving the key marketing moments really takes me back to being a kid again, and it’s well-done enough that it can spark interest for anyone. Even my eight-year-old son who had never heard of Mortal Kombat, was fascinated by the pixel art when perusing the character showcases and loved the commercial of everyone screaming the game’s name out in the streets. Great ads resonate with all generations. MORE FOR YOU I don’t want to spoil anything regarding the content itself, but it’s tremendous. I feel like I’ve grown to appreciate one of my all-time favorite game franchises even more now after having experienced all of the materials and it allowed me to play the classic games with a whole new perspective. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. The Ultimate Mortal Kombat Kollection Fortunately, it’s about as complete of a collection as you’ll find for the first era of Mortal Kombat games ranging from 1992 to 2003. The full list of every game included is as follows: Mortal Kombat – 1992 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear) Mortal Kombat II – 1993 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, 32X) Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis) Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995 (Arcade, WaveNet Arcade, SNES) Mortal Kombat Trilogy – 1996 (PlayStation) Mortal Kombat 4 – 1997 (Arcade) Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero – 1997 (PlayStation) Mortal Kombat Special Forces – 2000 (PlayStation) Mortal Kombat Advance – 2001 (Game Boy Advance) Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance – 2002 (Game Boy Advance) Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition – 2003 (Game Boy Advance) Personally, I grew up primarily playing the Sega Genesis versions of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II, as well as the Super Nintendo version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. All of those are included and feel better than ever. What’s remarkable is the fact that nearly every game has a great training mode and even separate Fatality Training mode, plus the ability to display move lists on-screen off to the side at all times. As a 30-something father of two working a full-time job and several freelancing projects on the side, I don’t have the mental bandwidth to practice moves and fatalities for hours anymore. A built-in cheat sheet is an absolute Godsend. For online quick play multiplayer, you can queue up for Mortal Kombat I arcade, Genesis, or SNES, Mortal Kombat II arcade, Genesis, 32X, or SNES, Mortal Kombat 3 arcade, Genesis, or SNES, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 arcade (and WaveNet), or SNES, as well as Mortal Kombat Trilogy on PS1 and the arcade version of Mortal Kombat 4. That’s a pretty great selection for multiplayer options, but it’s too bad the handheld versions aren’t included just for the novelty factor at least. However, you can still play those obviously solo or in offline local multiplayer. Additionally, every single game has its manual digitally uploaded and preserved, as well as the ability to instantly unlock hidden characters, secret stages, or even use cheat codes directly from the menus. Amazing. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. To Digital Eclipse’s credit, not every game in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is actually worth playing. They didn’t just cherry pick the favorite releases from each era, but instead focused on an authentic and almost entirely complete collection across all versions of each release. Notably, that even includes critically panned and despised games like Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. Anyone that knows me can attest to the fact that I often love movies and games others would consider quite bad. I had a lot of fun revisiting the forgotten Xbox-exclusive Superman game, for example. Whether it be curiosity or something else entirely, I’ve always loved seeking out failed experiments in an effort to learn and inspect. With all that said, I’m not sure Special Forces has a single redeeming quality other than the fact that it tries something unique and different, albeit with poor results. On paper, it’s not a bad idea. Special Forces follows Jax during his time as a soldier before the main continuity of the franchise making it both a prequel and a spin-off game. It’s a top-down isometric brawler action game, similar to something like a poor imitation of Fighting Force with a worse camera. The controls are bad, voice acting is cringy even for the time period, and it’s just not fun to play. Another game in the collection that’s often considered of lesser quality is Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, which is another spin-off, but I actually kind of like this one. Instead of totally abandoning what people know as Mortal Kombat, it uses a side scrolling 2D camera similar to the 16-bit era fighting games, but mixes in platforming and exploration elements to create a character action game instead. It’s a bit finnicky to play with some wild difficulty spikes, but it’s a neat idea at least. Rounding out the list of games not really worth playing heavily I’d include the handheld entries like those for the original Game Boy and the Sega Game Gear, as there is just no reason to play those other than for nostalgic reminiscence or sheer curiosity. It’s also interesting to see what corners had to be cut to cram the games down onto those tiny cartridges. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection To put it simply, if you are currently or ever have been a fan of Mortal Kombat, then you should buy the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection with zero hesitation. This is so much more than just a collection of old video games, as it preserves the lineage, evolution, and impact that one of gaming’s biggest icons has had over the years. And it does all of that in an interactive format that feels like a playable documentary, museum, and vintage arcade all rolled into one. The timeline features aren’t quite as interactable or deep as those in Atari 50, and it’s missing interviews with some folks I’d really like to hear from, but you can still very quickly toggle between the historical footage and actually play the games without hitting a single true loading screen. It’s fantastic to watch interviews and pore over ad materials for the original Mortal Kombat arcade game for an hour and then boot up the game itself in a matter of seconds to see all those ideas in action. In today’s game industry, the argument can be made that playing old games lacks appeal. I’d never make that argument, but plenty of people do. However, releases like the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection prove that maybe the missing ingredient for a lot of folks is just context. If you didn’t live this era of the game industry, then you don’t have personal nostalgia for these games. But a package like this, which treats the material with reverence and respect, can make a new fan out of anyone. Platform: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2 Developer: Digital Eclipse Publisher: Digital Eclipse and Atari Release Date: October 30, 2025 Price: $49.99 (Physical editions also available) Score: 9/10 Disclosure: A representative on behalf of Digital Eclipse and Atari sent me an early download code for a digital copy of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection on PlayStation 5 for the purposes of this review. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
