As a longtime Mortal Kombat fan, I was so excited by the announcement of this collection. All of my childhood, all in one place. My history with Mortal Kombat is all over the place: the arcade, playing on PC with a keyboard, then consoles, and then all of the handheld Game Boy Advance ones even. I even played Mortal Kombat 11 solely on the Switch—it was actually alright?

Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection rounds up everything, well, almost everything from the earlier years of the series. There are the arcade versions, the consoles, even the terrible Game Boy version is here. We’ve also got, for the first time outside of its initial release, two spin-off games—oh they suck, but as with all these sorts of collections, you have to take the good with the bad.

Digital Eclipse has been entrusted with this package, and their work in the past turning a collection of games into an interactive documentary has been pretty good so far. The Tetris Forever collection and The Making of Karateka were fantastic and the packaging again here is great in this regard.

There are 23 different versions of Mortal Kombat on display here, all presented as they were, with a few issues in some games fixed, but for the majority, it is warts and all. You see, the original arcade games were designed to get you to put in as many coins as possible. They were punishing, and they are still punishing today, even with the optional difficulty turned down. Most games will still read and predict your movements. It is cheap, and yes, it is authentic, but if I set it to very easy because I am 20 years older now, at least give me something.

There are other ways to play these games and get some help. You can put all the moves on the screen, and if you think that is cheating, remember, they used to have the moves displayed on the arcade cabinets back then. There is infinite Fatality time and one-button fatalities, but it is not all easy; you still have to figure out where to stand to make them activate. If you want to do it the old-fashioned way, there is a Fatality trainer. Oh, Fatality? That is a finishing move that usually involves someone losing a body part, if not being entirely vaporised or cut to shreds. Fun stuff.

While it’s great to play the original Mortal Kombat 3 or Trilogy again, even Mortal Kombat: Kombat 4 has grown on me over time. We have to talk about the inclusion of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. You see, there was a dark time in Mortal Kombat when they just kind of threw everything at the wall and tried to see what would stick. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero is a single-player platformer, you will play it for ten minutes and give up. It’s a special kind of jank, like imagine taking the movement from a fighting game, and then trying to make it into a platformer. One that has crappy hit detection for obstacles and just doesn’t work at all at times. Special Forces is a little less rubbish, but it is slow, again has bad combat, and has more cheese-filled cutscenes than you would expect, even for Mortal Kombat.

Then there’s the handheld stuff, oh boy. Mortal Kombat on the Game Boy—jeez, I feel sorry for the kid who got this, especially if their parents paid $50 for it back in the day. There is absolutely no redeeming feature, and again, you’ll play it for ten minutes, if that, and move on. The Game Boy Advance games are actually good; both Tournament Edition and Deadly Alliance are 3D fighting games, although the sprites are 2D. There is real 3D movement as well as 3D graphics. Tournament Edition is the one to play; it features characters missing from Deadly Alliance. Give them a shot!

Speaking of missing, the console version of Deadly Alliance would have been great to include too.

All of these games can be played at your leisure, both locally and online. The online, however, has some problems. At least I’ve read about them, because I haven’t been able to find a single person to try the rollback netcode with. You see, there is no way to look for a match aside from “Quick Match,” and that is per game. There are no browsers or ways to connect, or even to play with friends. So if you’re looking to play this online, wait and see if they sort this one out.

Aside from the games, which are a living history, there is an entire five-part documentary to watch as well. Like other Digital Eclipse releases, this is an interactive experience, with things to watch and behind-the-scenes artwork, photos, and more to explore along the way. The documentary covers all aspects of the series’ development, told by the people who made it. Everything from the way they got real-life actors into the game to the fear and circus surrounding the controversy over the game’s violence.

There is a lot of love in this collection. It is great to see almost everything from the first twenty years of the franchise on display, from all the great stuff to all the really rubbish stuff. However, it still feels a bit like a work in progress. I have had this game for a few weeks, and the Switch versions only just got patched to match the other versions, and there are still things to tidy up. This is a fun collection, and the jank is part of the charm. It always has been with Mortal Kombat, but there shouldn’t be new jank added to it, it’s got enough.

Rating: 3.5/5