Jon’s Thoughts
I have been a fan of the Mortal Kombat games for most of my life, and that is not an exaggeration as I first played Mortal Kombat II on SNES when I was five years old. The series has always been one of my favourite fighting game franchises, and I even got the PS4 specifically to play Mortal Kombat X. So when a collection of the classic games was finally confirmed and being made by Digital Eclipse no less, I was extremely excited, but the final product has left much to be desired.
I do need to note that some patches have already been released to fix some of the issues, but not all have been fixed and I need to be honest about everything. With that said, Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of an experience. There is a lot of content here and that is great, but there are issues with the content that was provided to players. The additional documentary material, however, is once more up to Digital Eclipse standards and a wonderful experience.
Contained within Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection are the arcade versions of Mortal Kombat 1,2,3, Ultimate 3, 4, and the once thought lost WAVENet version of Ultimate 3. In addition, there are a variety of home ports included, such as the Game Gear version of Mortal Kombat 1, Game Boy Versions of Mortal Kombat 1 and 2,, the 16 bit home console ports of the first three games for Sega and Nintendo, the 32X version of Mortal Kombat 2, The PlayStation version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the PlayStation versions of Mythologies Sub-Zero and Special Forces, and the GBA games, Mortal Kombat Advance. Deadly Alliance, and Tournament Edition. This is indeed a lot of content, and Digital Eclipse had stated that it wanted this to be a historical archive of Mortal Kombat, with both the good and bad games, although it is sad that the developers were under some constraints and not able to include every home port or handheld port as some are missing for a variety of reasons.
This all sounds like an amazing package, especially when combined with a very in depth interactive documentary that really explores the history of the franchise and what it has come to mean, but now I need to discuss the problems. Firstly, the game launched without meaningful online modes and only included quick matches. While more online features are coming, this is disastrous to have at launch for fighting games, which are based around playing against other people. The lack of proper online features really hurts the overall experience, but it is not even the biggest issue.
The problem Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection has is that the games have major emulation issues and there is a serious problem with input lag. In fact, the input lag can be noticed just on the overall menu for the collection and it just gets worse from there, Attempting to play some of the games proves frustrating due to the lag and emulation issues, and I myself compared Mortal Kombat II’s Game Boy version, which I have had since I was young, to the collection’s version of the Game Boy port and it was a completely different experience where the collection just felt wrong.
Digital Eclipse included training modes for moves and fatalities, but the input lag caused issues when trying to pull off the same moves, especially the brutalities in Trilogy. The input lag was a major issue when playing Mythologies Sub-Zero, and that was a shame because one of the QOL improvements Digital Eclipse added as an option was a reworked control scheme that is a game changer (pun intended) and would have far improved the experience if not for the input lag throwing everything off. Even the rewind option was unable to help me out in these situations, as the game was just too hard to deal with because of this issue.
Then there were the filter and screen options for the games which came in three forms, CRT, wide screen CRT and off. The frustrating thing was having to adjust it, not just for each game, but for each mode in each game, and while I assumed my eyesight just was not as good as it used to be, others have since verified the collection has muddy visuals in handheld mode for the Nintendo Versions ( I played on Switch 2, while Ryan played on Xbox Series). It took a while, but I was able to find a setup that looked okay for me, but with everything else, I just was not sure if I wanted to continue.
There are also music issues, and while the issues for the 32X version of Mortal Kombat II have been patched to be accurate, there are still issues with the music on the PlayStation games, where the looping is not working correctly, and sound effects in the GBA games are off as well. Another other issue I noticed is that while the game does have a movelist option you can have displayed, it only shows special moves. This may not be a big issue for Mortal Kombat 1, and the portable games, but games like the various versions of Mortal Kombat 3 had a wide variety of combo options and there is no indication of what combos you can do with the characters.
This was disappointing, because as mentioned, Digital Eclipse did put a lot of work into this, and there were a ton of QOL improvements that would be great if not for the emulation issues. Options to unlock hidden characters right away, go to secret bosses, cheat modes and more were all great, and of course all the work done for Mythologies Sub-Zero would make the experience much improved. There were even alterations done to reduce loading times in Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and a cheat option added to Special Forces to try and make the experience better, and optional resolution upgrades for Mortal Kombat 4 to make it look better.
This is not even getting into the interactive documentary, which as stated is a wonderful look at the series history, and other extras as well. Character bios and information are provided for the various games, and character cards that change the artwork based on the game chosen are a nice touch, but the music player is amazing, especially for fans of the various versions of 3, which had the best music in the classic games. And speaking of 3, the fact that WAVENet Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was saved and included is nothing short of incredible and gives me hope that other rare and thought lost Mortal Kombat games can one day be re-released.. Stuff like this should have made the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection a must buy, but the flaws hold it back.
Digital Eclipse has promised patches to not only bring the desired online features but also fix many of the problems. I really hope they can not only fix the issues but turn the reputation around and make this the fantastic treasure trove for Mortal Kombat fans we have wanted it to be. If they can pull it off, they can avoid a horrible fatality for the collection.
Ryan’s Thoughts
As Jon stated, I played the Xbox version of this collection. Granted I could play these games in their original forms which I have gone back to for comparison sake. I have put nearly 20 hours into this kollection since we were given this for review. I bring that up because as easily as I could play the games in their original forms (arcade games excluded) at any time, I much prefer playing these games on the Xbox, and no not just for convenience sake.
Jon talked about the various issues that he had while playing the games on the Nintendo Switch 2. I have also seen similar things stated about the Steam and PS5 versions. I can without a doubt say that I have had none of these issues with the Xbox release.
Now I may have rose colored nostalgia glasses on, or may just be oblivious to them, but I just don’t experience any input lag at all with any of these releases. I don’t notice any issues with sound or performance whatsoever. To be clear, I am not saying that this version doesn’t have some issues, but it’s more an issue with the Kollection itself and not with the specific version I am playing.
The QOL improvements and modern enhancements for these games are amazing. Being able to change resolutions and put filters in place is a nice thing to have access to with a press of a button and menu toggle. The addition of secret menus and characters accessible so easily is very much appreciated, as we no longer have to scour the internet just to find out what to do to access these things.
When it comes to the games included in this collection, I loved the arcade ports, and the console ports were nice to have as well. The handheld ports are where I really have an issue…well most of the handheld ports. MK II on GameBoy and MK on GameGear are definitely the highlights of the handheld ports.
MK II on GameBoy plays just like it does on the GameBoy Color, it even has a GameBoy Color filter option in this collection which was very nice to see. For context, I compared MK II in this collection with the original GameBoy game being played on the ModRetro Chromatic. Outside of the larger screen on the XB version and the obvious achievements in the XB version, there is zero difference between the platforms you play the game on. Being able to play MK for GameGear on a big screen is actually kinda nice. I much prefer playing it on XB than on my modded GameGear. Honestly though, this is likely due to the GameGear being big and bulky while the Xbox controller is much easier and lighter to hold and play with.
The rest of the handheld ports are atrocious. The GameBoy version of MK is horrible, period. Again I compared both the original GameBoy game on the ModRetro Chromatic and the Xbox version. They play the exact same way. The game is played as if you’re fighting underwater (or maybe a giant vat of molasses). The characters move so slowly, I feel like if you’re going to include this in the collection that you offer a frame skip option. Seriously, if you’re going to have this game in the collection, a QOL improvement would have been to include an option to speed up the gameplay. I get being authentic to the series and the original game, but in its original form, it should have been excluded.
I guess it was included here unaltered to showcase the fact that MK has some horrible games in the franchise, MK on GameBoy certainly fits that mold. The other bad games in this series are the GameBoy Advance releases. I am not going to break them down as Jon already did so. What I will say is that the games are so pixelated, that they look horrible played on a TV or larger display. Now I played the original releases on my DS Lite and they also look pixelated and not really on brand for the series. I feel like these were made to simply include those that own a GameBoy Advance back in the day. The games feel like pixelated and watered down versions of their console counterparts.
While I appreciated Digital Eclipse’s attempt to highlight the good and the bad of the series, I feel like it should have been the best in the franchise…or at least the best all around in the franchise. It would have been nice to see the Playstation 2 version of Deadly Alliance, MK Gold for Dreamcast, and Shaolin Monks for Playstation 2 included in this collection and just to have left the GameBoy Advance games out of it entirely, along with the GameBoy version of MK.
So I have given my thoughts on the games and what I would have liked to have seen versus what we got, but how is the documentary side of the Collection? Well as always Digital Eclipse really outdid themselves with this aspect. I mean there is a ton of history here! You have posters, concept documents, advertisements, information on the various games, and of course interviews and behind the scenes videos which are spectacular to go through!
The only thing missing really is the inclusion of like photo-types or lost games in the MK series. I would have liked to have seen something like that included here as well, like they did with the Atari 50 collection and other collections they’ve put together. Even without that kind of stuff though, it’s a great set of historic information on the franchise.
In closing, I would say that MK Legendary Collection is a wonderful look at the history of a beloved fighting game franchise. Yes, it lacks full online support right now, and has some issues on other platforms as Jon and others have previously mentioned, but it really is the best way to experience these games. I would definitely recommend picking up this collection on your platform of choice if you’re a fan of Mortal Kombat or fighting games in general. Though unless you want to wait for patches to fix the issues on other platforms, you may want to pick this game up on the Xbox.
Disclaimer: Review keys were provided
