Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Review – A Flawless Resurrection

There’s something almost poetic about watching the spine-ripping, blood-soaked chaos of Mortal Kombat’s earliest days preserved and polished for 2025. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection isn’t just a nostalgia trip — it’s a museum exhibit that actually lets you throw a punch. Digital Eclipse has cracked open the vault to deliver one of the most complete and reverent fighting-game compilations ever assembled… with a few fatal flaws along the way.

A Brutal History Lesson

The Legacy Kollection gathers over 20 versions of Mortal Kombat’s classic titles — from the original 1992 arcade game all the way through Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and beyond. It even resurrects long-lost curiosities like the legendary WaveNet build, a piece of MK history that’s been unplayable for nearly three decades.

But this isn’t just a dump of old ROMs. Every game is framed within Digital Eclipse’s “Timeline” interface, which functions like an interactive documentary. You can browse design sketches, storyboards, actor footage, and behind-the-scenes commentary from Ed Boon and the original team. It’s not just fun — it’s educational in the best, nerdiest way possible.

The Fight Still Hits Hard

Boot up the first Mortal Kombat, and you’re instantly transported back to the days when digitized actors and thunderous “FINISH HIM!” screams ruled arcades. The fighting still feels punchy, snappy, and unforgiving in that old-school way. There’s even a rewind feature and a training mode for newcomers brave enough to learn the ancient art of input memorization.

However, the magic fades a bit once lag enters the mix. Offline play can feel slightly sluggish, with inconsistent input response on some titles. Online play fares worse — rollback netcode would’ve been a dream, but what’s here often feels like fighting underwater. For casual nostalgia sessions, it’s fine; for competitive diehards, it’s a fatality to the fun.

Kollecting the Kulture

Where Legacy Kollection really shines is in its preservation of MK’s personality. From the over-the-top violence to the campy FMV cutscenes of Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Special Forces, it’s all here — flaws and all. Digital Eclipse clearly understands that MK’s messy history is part of its charm. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, you’ll uppercut someone into a pit of spikes, and you’ll love every second of it.

The addition of galleries, interviews, and rare promotional footage turns this into more than a game collection — it’s a digital time capsule of ’90s gaming excess. It celebrates Mortal Kombat not just as a franchise, but as a cultural phenomenon that defined an era.

Flaws in the Fatality

Still, this collection isn’t perfect. Not every port runs flawlessly, and a few fan-favorite entries (like Deception or Armageddon) are conspicuously absent. The emulation, while generally solid, occasionally dips below expectations for a release of this pedigree. And while the nostalgia value is through the roof, the gameplay of some included spin-offs reminds you that not every MK experiment deserved resurrection.

Verdict

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is one of the best love letters to fighting game history ever assembled. It’s brutally honest about the franchise’s ups and downs, lovingly presented, and jam-packed with content that both fans and newcomers can appreciate. Technical hiccups and weak online play hold it back from perfection, but the sheer scope and passion behind the project make it an essential experience for any Mortal Kombat fan.

If you grew up screaming “Get over here!” at your friends in an arcade, this is the ultimate trip down memory lane — and a reminder that some legends truly never die.

Review Code Was Provided by the Publisher