Nothing, Nothing can prepare you
I still remember the first time I saw the original Mortal Kombat in an arcade. I spent a lot of time in arcades as a youth and fighting games and beat ‘em ups were my jam. The first time that cabinet roared “Finish Him!” my head turned. What is this game? My 12-year-old self could not believe that guy just ripped his head off. This was the greatest game ever made. That began my thirty-plus year love of the franchise. Growing up playing these games in arcades are milestones. I remember where I was in my life for each of the first four game releases. It fills me with nostalgia, so when Atari and Digital Eclipse announced the MK Legacy Kollection, I could not wait to dig into it.
So, what is the MK Legacy Kollection? Well, if you are familiar with Digital Eclipse, their Gold Series of collections are, well, the gold standard for game compilations. They include hours of documentary footage, historical items such as manuals, fliers, and screenshots from the development and history of these games, as well as the ability to play said games. They also tweak things to modernize them and add their own flavor. Atari 50 is still one of the best collections ever created, and this latest one is no exception.
The layout of this entry should be familiar to anyone who has played one of Digital Eclipse’s previous Gold Series collections. The main menu is broken up into the games, the Krypt which contains the special features, and basic options. The documentary section is broken up into timelines that start at the beginning of the series and runs down the history of the game, the developers, and so much more. I cannot stress how much content (kontent?) is here. Brand new interviews with the team, including John Tobias, who left the team shortly after MK4, which is addressed in the footage.
I loved going through these timelines, sure a lot of the stuff I knew being such a rabid fan all these years, but hearing it from the people that made the game in 2025 was awesome. Hearing their perspective of how the franchise evolved over the years and how each game came to be. There are countless materials here including commercials, magazine ads, fliers, box arts, and even unused animations from the original games. There are entire behind the scenes sections that have been included in other collections just tossed in for good measure. It took me a solid 3-4 hours to go through it all and I loved every minute of it. For fans of the series, this is indeed the gold standard.
The Krypt also has a couple other sections that are pretty cool. We have the music player which has a host of tracks from all the included games. There are some classics in here, but I did notice a few omissions from earlier games. The biggest thing here though is the character timeline. This is a giant character select screen that contains every character from all the included games. You can cycle between each game and it only shows characters in it. Click the character and it gives you a synopsis of their role in each game. It is very cool. The MK lore and timeline have gotten wild over the years, and this helps break down the character roles. Wild that all this stemmed from two sentence blurbs in the arcades.
Now let’s dive into the games, there is a lot to unwrap here. There are 11 games here, some with multiple versions. Of course we have the standard five arcade releases of MK, MK2, MK3, UMK3, and MK4. Each arcade version feels flawless, and the additions made are great, more on those later. We also get the thought to be forgotten Wavenet versions of UMK3, which was an online version of the game. There are also a host of home versions of games including MK Trilogy, MK Mythologies Sub-Zero, MK Special Force, MK Deadly Alliance, MK Advance, and MK Tournament Edition all three of the latter are portable versions.
In addition, there are various home ports of each of the arcade games outside of MK4. I was disappointed we didn’t get MK Gold for the Dreamcast, which I am sure everyone is, but the PS1 version would have been neat. The original MK gets the most love with SNES, Genesis, GameBoy, and Game Gear versions while MK2 gets all the same versions except it exchanges Game Gear for 32X, which is awesome. I stand by that the 32X version of MK2 remains the best home cartridge version, though I have a very soft spot for the SNES version. I would have loved to see the Saturn port, but I know Saturn emulation is tough.
Things get a little more sporadic after that. MK3 only includes the SNES and Genesis versions, weird no PS version. UMK3 gets only the SNES version and MK Trilogy is only the PS version, same with Mythologies. I understand the choices, but being a greedy MK gamer, I always wanted more. I do hope they continue to update this with more games. I know a lot of people are upset they didn’t go further, but this was clearly focused on that early quarter of the series, the arcade legacy.
The menu to play the games is similar to other Gold Series collections. Each game is listed in release order and you can sort them by various filters or by arcade, home port, or by game itself. Each game has its own set of options too including things like infinite fatality time, unlocking cheat menus, and being able to unlock secrets such as fighting Reptile in MK or playing Pong in MK2. You can unlock hidden characters in the arcade versions and even access dip switches. Each game has its own features, they are not universal, though the controller mapping seemed to stick for me across multiple games.
Each game looks and feels great. There is a TV filter option as well as the ability to play pixel perfect or stretch to full. There is even a wide option for monsters. There is only border art for TV and arcade, which is fine for me, but some special artwork would have been nice. Some games even contain online modes, but at launch lobbies and crossplay are not available, so my experience online was very limited. I was on Xbox and most of the Achievements I unlocked I did first if that tells you anything. Also I still remember how to get three heads to pop off for Johnny Cage’s fatality in MK2 so yeah, I was first.
This is another great feature, each game has a move list you can have appear onscreen, also it is context sensitive. So, for example when it says, ‘Finish Him!’ it shows the fatalities instead of the moves. Very nice. Finally, there is the fatality trainer which lets players perform all the fatalities in the game without having to meet requirements. This is a great feature. The team at Digital Eclipse really went all out on this one and I love it.
So, all this sounds perfect, what’s missing? Well as I mentioned launching without crossplay, lobbies, and ranked matches is going to ruffle some feathers. Online mode isn’t something I expect myself to be playing a lot of, but it is a big feature for these games. I get the appeal of wanting to revisit the arcade feel and without these options, it is going to be a rough start. Digital Eclipse said it is coming, and I have faith they will deliver. My biggest gripe is more games. As I said I would have LOVED other versions of the classics. Where is my PS1/N64 version of MK4, Genesis version of UMK3? Heck, I grew up playing the Game Gear version of MK2 religiously. I understand constraints, but would love to see MK Gold at some point. Sure, these are minimal considering what we got, but I hope they continue to support this long enough to perhaps add these.
The MK Legacy Kollection is a dream come true for me. Growing up with MK from the beginning this hit all the right nostalgia notes. MK is easily one of my favorite gaming franchises and have been a fan for over 30 years and will likely be playing it until my hands no longer work. Digital Eclipse understood the assignment and aced it. I cannot wait to see what they add to this over time, and now I can finally play my beloved MK2 in various forms in one place. If you have ever had any interest in the series this is a must-have.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
