Digital Eclipse’s documentaries / compilations have been outstanding so far, but one thing all of the previous three instances of their series had in common was the fact the games were a bit too old and a bit too limited. That’s not to say they were compilations on bad games (dude, please, one of them was about Tetris, arguably the most perfect game of all time), but they were almost always about smaller arcade games from the 80s, maybe some games in the early 90s. It was time for the Gold Master Series to tackle an even bigger cultural juggernaut, a franchise spawning a ton of games of increased complexity, featuring timeless masterpieces, spinoffs, and some utterly maligned crap. And so they did, with the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection.

What can be said about Mortal Kombat that hasn’t been said before? A juggernaut not only among fighting games, but gaming franchises in general. An epic maypole of controversy. Possibly the most culturally relevant American gaming franchise, like, ever. I never thought Warner Bros, in their neverending streak of bad decisions, would actually allow for Atari and Digital Eclipse to give Mortal Kombat the Gold Master treatment, but here we are. As to be expected, this is a borderline gala event, complete with interviews, a ton of history, never-seen-before footage, and, of course, a crapton of games.

As for the documentary aspect of this collection, I have no complaints at all. Mortal Kombat has had a fascinating development story. The entire history of its development cycle, as well as developing most of its sequels, is presented. Granted, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection covers a specific portion of the series, as it focuses mostly in its arcade-developed iterations, so games released after 2002 are mentioned, sure, but not in documentary form.

Seeing series creators Ed Boon and John Tobias in good spirits, talking and interacting to each other in multiple instances of the documentary is absolutely heartwarming, considering the fact Tobias hasn’t worked on a mainline entry in the series since 1999. It even made me feel somewhat hopeful for the future, hoping he’ll actually make a comeback in a future entry further down the line. Other names from both Mortal Kombat and Midway’s history show up at specific points. Once again, I can’t say anything but great things about the effort Digital Eclipe put in their documentaries. But let’s be honest: you are mostly here for the games. And oh boy, there are many of them in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection.

The mainstream arcade releases, from Mortal Kombat to Mortal Kombat 4 are all present. Thanks to Digital Eclipse’s magnificent remastering and porting skills, all games feel fluid and responsive to play. Rewind functionalities have been added, as well as an on-screen list of all moves your characters can perform – that also includes the prompts for their Fatalities, Babalities, Animalities and whatnot. You gotta remember that these finishers were actually freaking hard to pull off in older Mortal Kombat games. You had to memorize them and you had to perform them perfectly, as there was little room or time for error. The feeling of finally being able to pull off these moves after literal DECADES is just… wow. No words.

The second batch of titles included in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is what I like to call the “mainstream console ports”. The Mega Drive and Super Nintendo versions of the first two Mortal Kombats, as well as the 32X port of Mortal Kombat 2 and the Super Nintendo ports of Mortal Kombat 3 and its Ultimate iteration are present. Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the “perfected” version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for fifth generation consoles, is present in its Playstation format. Though I grew up playing (and loving) the Nintendo 64 version, I understand the inclusion of this superior port, which looks, sounds and plays better. It also featured more characters, such as Motaro, human Smoke, and so on.

Now let’s talk about the more interesting batch of games: the odd spinoffs and absolute pieces of garbage. Look, in order to fully tell the story of a franchise, and in order to fully preserve it to posterity, you gotta mention its ugly ducklings. I may have disliked the Bubsy collection, but hey, you can play Bubsy 3D in it. It sucks, but it’s a piece of gaming history. So is being able to play the atrocious Game Boy ports of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 2, or more infamously, Mortal Kombat Advance. Yes, the worst game in the series (it’s either that or the Switch port of Mortal Kombat 1) is fully playable, remastered, and just like all other games in this collection, it even features online support. That means that it could TECHNICALLY become an EVO staple one day. I’d pay real money to see that happen.

Games like Special Forces and Mythologies: Sub-Zero are also included. In the case of the latter, which has always been infamous for its terrible control scheme, Digital Eclipse went out of its way to coin a much more concise gameplay system and controls. For the first time since its release, Mythologies doesn’t particularly suck to play, all thanks to that improvement, as well as the inclusion of a rewind function. And yes, the incredibly awful live action cutscenes are still present, and I love that fact so freaking much.

As previously mentioned, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection basically tells the story of the franchise up until Mortal Kombat 4, meaning that everything released after it, with the exception of some Game Boy Advance ports, is absent. I understand the lack of releases such as Armageddon and Deadly Alliance, though I found it odd that the latter’s GBA ports are included, standing out like a sore thumb. With that said, I do lament the absence of a few other games, such as the Game Boy Color version of Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal Kombat Gold (the improved version of Mortal Kombat 4 for Dreamcast), and the one version of Mortal Kombat released for the Game.com system. I mean, it couldn’t have been worse than Mortal Kombat Advance… right? Right??

I was really impressed with the level of commitment and effort put into each port. To see all of these games running so smoothly, with online support, it’s just amazing. Some people will be mad enough to set up competitive tournaments in some of these crappier ports, and the fact that this is now possible with an official release is just delightful to me.

Digital Eclipse has done it yet again. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a fantastic compilation of the earlier years of the seminal franchise, not only featuring yet another high-quality documentary for fans to enjoy, but also featuring remastered and revamped ports of almost all of the Mortal Kombat games released in the nineties. Sure, it includes crap like Mortal Kombat Advance and Special Forces, but if you’re to preserve the history of franchise, you gotta give the bad games in the franchise the same kind of treatment. It’s just a delight for fans and gaming historians alike. Now, what I really want for them to do is another kollection that includes Deadly Alliance, Armageddon and Shaolin Monks. C’mon Ed Boon, you know you want that too.

Graphics: 8.0 It depends on the game. The arcade titles and their console ports look great in remastered form, with or without a CRT filter. The portable games, not so much. Elsewhere, just like all other Digital Eclipse collections released so far, the documentary clips are well-shot.	Gameplay: 9.0 Responsive and fluid controls on almost all of the games included in this collection. Any issues I’ve had were either due to some of the games being terrible (like Mortal Kombat Advance), or due to the terrible quality of the joycon’s d-pads.
Sound: 8.0 Great music, iconic sound effects (or should I say, toasty sound effects), and good sound quality on the documentary bits. No complaints.	Fun Factor: 9.5 A love letter to Mortal Kombat, a great piece of gaming history documented in detail, and a fantastic compilation of some of the best fighting games of all time… as well as Mortal Kombat Advance and Special Forces. But hey, I respect the fact they were included in the first place.
Final Verdict: 9.0

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Switch and Switch 2.

Reviewed on Switch 2.

A copy of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection was provided by the publisher.