Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Review

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It’s been quite a while since the last MK collection and that collection only included the arcade versions of the first few games in the series. Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection comes along and blows us away with altogether 23 games in the MK series. It’s missing quite a few games, but what we have here is really something to get excited about. This collection has arcade, console and portable versions of a lot of the first few games in the MK series. There are many differences in each version, so it’s good to see so many that we have to choose from. The collection is not perfect, but it certainly brings a lot of kontent with it!

First of all, this review is based off the latest patch for the Legacy Kollection. If you’ve played the game prior to the patch that was released in early November of 2025, you’ve probably noticed lag in many of the games and the 32X version missing some of its sound. They addressed that issue with the latest patch and the games now all work fine on Xbox. This collection has such a wide assortment of titles, that I feel the need to list them out here.

• Mortal Kombat (Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear)
• Mortal Kombat II (Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, 32X)
• Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis)
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade, SNES)
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet (Arcade)
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy (PS1)
• Mortal Kombat 4 (Arcade)
• Mortal Kombat Mythologies (PS1)
• Mortal Kombat Special Forces (PS1)
• Mortal Kombat Advance (GBA)
• Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance (GBA)
• Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition (GBA)

The original Mortal Kombat is still one of my favorites of this series. The arcade version is still just as violent as I remember it. The SNES version was always my pick of the home versions, even with the censored blood. The Genesis version doesn’t look near as good, but still plays well and has all the violence. The Game Boy version is nearly unplayable. It’s so hard to get the slightest move out in that version. The Game Gear version still has the input delay that I remember. The Game Gear version is still very playable, but you have to get adjusted to the delay. The only version of MK1 that is truly missing is the Sega CD version.

Mortal Kombat II has some great variety as well. We get nearly every version that has differences. The original arcade is still one of the best looking MK games to me. The SNES version looks fantastic for 16-bit but suffere some slowdown at times. The Genesis version moves really well, but can’t compare to the SNES graphics. The 32X version looks and sounds much better than the Genesis version. This is my first time playing the Game Boy version of MKII and I must admit that I was shocked how much better it it compared to the first game. The Game Boy version of MKII is so much more responsive! It’s too bad that this collection does not included the Game Gear version of MKII.

MK3 and UMK3 are some of the most fun MK games. The dial combo system and run button are fantastic and add so much to the gameplay. The arcade version of both are just as I remember them. The SNES and Genesis versions of MK3 are quite good despite the hardware limitations. This is my first time playing the Genesis version. It looks pretty good, but the controls don’t seem responsive. The SNES version of UMK3 for SNES was a major letdown to me back in the day. It felt so watered down compared to the original MK3 on SNES. It had missing audio all over the place and Noob Saibot and Smoke felt very unfinished.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat Wavenet is a very interesting version of UMK3. It includes Noob Saibot as a playable character (with an unlock code). He is heavily unfinished, but it’s interesting to see him in his early stages. In Wavenet, his only special move is a teleport grab. He also has his own combos. Mortal Kombat Trilogy is basically the definitive version of MK3 released only on console. This collection only has the PS1 version. This version was updated to have much less load times. Shang Tsung can also morph into anyone without loading. There are other small fixes as well. For instance, after performing Johnny Cage’s backbreaker fatality, he no longer slides to the side a bit during his win pose – that used to be a glitch in the PS1 version.

Mortal Kombat 4 is really great to have. This is the first release of an arcade perfect version of this game on console. This game is definitely worth buying the collection for alone. It seems to have the most stable online play as well. There is an option to upscale this game to make it look even clearer on HDTVs and it looks fantastic. This game is very janky and the first MK to start the major gibberish sound effects, but its awesome to finally have a good version of MK4!

I’ve heard the horror stories about MK Advance and this is my first time playing it. Good god, this game is so awful. It’s like the game makes up its own rules. CPU characters teleport all over the screen and walk backward. It feels like playing a faster Game Gear version of the original MK only on much better hardware which is just so sad! MK Advance is such an abomination! It’s still good to see it on this collection as a warning to “not do it again” though.

Mythologies and Special Forces are the only two adventure games on this collection. Mythologies is a side scrolling platformer that plays just like MK3 overall. It’s basically a setup game for MK4. It introduces a lot of MK4 characters. The game focuses on Sub-Zero and his backstory with Quan Chi and Scorpion. Special Forces is such a rushed 3D platformer, but it’s actually quite fun once you get used to it. This is my first playing Special Forces and it’s really not as bad as I imagined it. You play as Jax and he gets leveled up as you defeat enemies and gets access to new combos. The game has some pretty good exploration overall.

Deadly Alliance and Tournament Edition are both the two GBA releases of Deadly Alliance. It’s very strange to have both of these on a collection with much older titles. They both have their portable limitations, but they are actually pretty fun. Surprisingly, they each have their own krypts complete with unlockables. Tournament Edition brings in characters that the original release of Deadly Alliance was missing.

All of the fighting games can be played online with the exception of the portable titles. I only got the chance to play UMK3, MK Trilogy and MK4 online since the online was not that busy. UMK3 and MK Trilogy had some lag which messed up the timing of gameplay. MK4 seemed near perfect online. The online is said to be rollback. All games have extra options and screen options. You can display them in the original look or wide screen. There is also an option for borders and a more modern look. There are also extras such as history information for the MK timeline.

If you’ve heard about all the offline lag problems with this collection then just know that it was all fixed in the latest patch. All the games are pretty much arcade perfect. The only game with changes from its original platform is MK Trilogy, but those changes are for the better. My main problem with the collection is the spotty online and the fact that it has no lobbies. Lobbies are said to be coming soon. Hopefully, the existing problems can be fixed. If everything is fixed, this collection could be a 90% score for me but with everything still messed up, I have to lower it. Even with the existing problems, this collection is really a must buy for any serious MK fan!

The Good:
+ 23 game altogether!
+ Everything is emulated quite well!
+ Online play for nearly every fighting game (except for portable titles)
+ Extra options that can enhance some games (like with MK4)

The Bad:
- Online connections are spotty (laggy) with some games
- No lobbies for online yet (no way to have private matches)
- The fact that MK Advance was actually sold for money at one point