Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection is now available digitally for all current generation consoles, handhelds, and PC at $49.99. Physical editions will follow on December 12, 2025, priced between $49.99 and $79.99 depending on the edition and platform.
For more than three decades, people have asked what game series inspired me to start writing about my love for video games. The answer is simple: Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat lit the fuse that exploded the fighting game craze in American arcades. Then it ignited again on September 13, 1993, Mortal Monday. In the span of just eleven months and five days, from the arcade release to the home versions, everything changed. Arcades shifted their focus to money-making fighters, while politicians turned their attention to banning violent games like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat. They claimed these games threatened public morals and could spark real-world violence. Even skin exposure was suddenly a national concern. Strange times indeed.
In 1992, lines to play Mortal Kombat stretched around arcades worldwide. Fans demanded a home release, no matter the system or the price. Their wish came true on September 13, 1993, when Mortal Monday arrived and the game hit 16-bit consoles and 8-bit handhelds alike.
The Digital Eclipse take on Mortal Kombat
Over the past few years, Digital Eclipse has built a reputation for turning game compilations into full-blown retrospectives. Collections such as Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, and Bubsy Paws on Fire set a high standard for how classic games can be presented with a lot context and production. Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection continues that run with the same dedication and finesse. It connects to Atari 50 with its interactive timeline covering the legendary and the lesser-known moments of the series, supported by text, interviews, archive footage and concept art.
Like other recent collections from Digital Eclipse for Atari, Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection combines documentary storytelling with playable emulated games. Everything is presented through an interactive timeline that blends both elements seamlessly. Content Editor, Dan Amrich, spoke to almost all key figures that played a part in the birth and continuation of the Mortal Kombat franchise. It also features known video game media personalities like Khalief Adams, Cliff Bleszinski and Jeff Gerstmann, to name a few.
Digital Eclipse has carved out a unique niche in game preservation. Rather than simply repackaging old titles, the studio curates them as interactive documentaries. Collections such as Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story blend playable games with timelines, interviews and archival footage that guide players through each creator’s history and context.
The result feels less like a bundle of emulated titles and more like a museum exhibit you can play. Each compilation tells a story about how the games were made, why they mattered and what came next. It’s an approach that treats gaming history with the same respect as film or music retrospectives while still capturing what makes these classics fun to play today.
With full access granted by NetherRealm, producer Dan Amrich went all-in on the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, drawing from archival footage, concept art and even arcade boards once thought lost to create an incredibly detailed production.
– Danny (ed.)
The second key focus, of course, is on the games. Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection curates twenty-three titles. Most are classics, though a few are questionable inclusions, yet all are important in showing how Mortal Kombat evolved over the years.
All four original home versions are included in this collection and they hold up remarkably well against their arcade counterparts. I tried the original console games and the arcade classic before diving into the MK Kollection, and honestly, if the set only included those five versions, it would still be worth the asking price.
There’s a surprising range of settings and tweaks available, far more than players could imagine back in 1993. Each game matches the speed and feel of its original release, and the nostalgia doesn’t stop there. The Legacy Kollection goes well beyond the 1993 titles.
The Legacy Continues… Mostly
This collection includes most of the console and handheld ports of Mortal Kombat II, though oddly, the Sega Game Gear version is missing. It was a solid handheld port for its time and deserved a spot here. The same strange omissions continue with Mortal Kombat 3, leaving out both the Game Gear and Nintendo Game Boy versions. Long-time fans would have appreciated seeing how the series evolved from those rough, nearly unplayable handheld editions into stronger follow-ups.
What really caught me off guard was how my favorite entry, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was handled. Digital Eclipse and Atari made a bold decision to include the WaveNet Arcade version. This arcade version of UMK3 was meant to launch in 1997 with online capabilities, letting players challenge others around the world. That service never went live and the version was cancelled, making its inclusion here a fascinating surprise.
However, the Sega Genesis version of UMK3 is missing, while the Super Nintendo version made the cut. Both were created and released by the same publishers, which raises questions I’ll come back to later in this article.
Another surprise is the addition of Mortal Kombat 4. This game marks a shift from digitized sprites to full 3D models, standing out as the odd one in the se, especially since none of its home or handheld ports are featured.
The Playstation Era
The original Sony PlayStation,my all-time favorite console,gets some love with three major titles.
First up is Mortal Kombat Trilogy, a massive mash-up combining nearly every fighter and stage from the series up to that point. It launches with thirty-two playable characters, with even more to unlock. Alongside it come two infamous spin-offs: Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces.
These two games were the start of an abandoned attempt to give each major character their own solo adventure. Mythologies starred Sub-Zero in a hybrid of action and RPG elements. It was ambitious but stumbled due to awkward gameplay and the console rivalry of the time. The PlayStation version had full cutscenes and extras, while the Nintendo 64 release felt stripped down.
Odd ones
By the time Special Forces arrived, the concept was already on life support. Still, it plays noticeably better in this 2025 collection than it ever did back in 2000. The performance is smoother, the visuals clearer, and the controls more responsive. It’s one of the better surprises in the set.
Rounding things out are three Game Boy Advance titles from 2001, 2002, and 2003. The first, Mortal Kombat Advance, gained infamy as one of the worst games ever made. It even received a zero score from Dan Hsu, then editor-in-chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly—the first time a mainstream AAA title had ever been rated that low. Midway’s reaction was to threaten to blacklist the magazine, which thankfully never happened.
The two follow-ups, Deadly Alliance (2002) and Tournament Edition (2003), were far better. They proved that handheld Mortal Kombat could work when handled with more care.
Options and special features are plentiful
What makes this collection stand out is the wealth of options and special features packed into it. Most of the arcade versions, and even some home ports, now include training modes, along with a dedicated Fatality Practice mode where you can finally master those iconic finishing moves.
For the first time ever, I was able to pull off fatalities in the handheld versions of Mortal Kombat. It made me eat my words, thirty-one years after my very first review, when I once claimed that handheld fatalities simply didn’t exist.
The compilation also unlocks development debug menus and lets you fight rarely seen characters, especially in the handheld and arcade ports. Ed Boon even had his own secret button combo to access a special settings mode on every Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet ever produced. He could use it in arcades around the world to tweak gameplay and settings on the fly. That same debug menu can now be activated with a simple button press.
Kombatant History
The special features don’t stop there. The collection includes full soundtracks, the aforementioned interactive documentaries and a detailed Kombatant History covering every fighter from the first four arcade entries and Mortal Kombat Trilogy. That’s more than forty characters in total, including one I didn’t even know existed after more than thirty years with the series.
Looking ahead, there are plans to add an illustrated curation called The Khronicle of the Realms. It will serve as a visual guide to the lore and timeline of the Mortal Kombat universe. Digital Eclipse also hinted that community feedback could shape future updates, adding more features, or even additional games, to the collection.
Omissions
With that said, the missing titles I mentioned earlier—like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on Sega Genesis and the home ports of Mortal Kombat 4 for PlayStation and Nintendo 64—raise some concerns. These gaps might suggest the possibility of future downloadable content, which in this particular case wouldn’t be a welcome move.
Most players don’t think much about licensing or who owns what, but here it matters. When a single company holds nearly all the rights to a franchise, leaving out specific versions starts to look deliberate. It gives the impression that certain games could be held back for later sale as extra content. If that’s true, it risks making this celebration of Mortal Kombat’s legacy feel like a cash grab rather than a complete archive.
I hope that’s not the case. Still, it’s hard not to wonder how the Genesis version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was left out when Mortal Kombat 1 through 3 are all here—and when the SNES version, made by the same publishers, made the cut.
Technical issues
Reviewer Jimmy did not experience any major technical issues while playing the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 and Switch versions of the game. However, current Steam reviews point to several serious problems with the PC version—including input lag, unresponsive menus, weak netcode, missing audio tracks and low-resolution cutscenes.
So, while we reviewed all console versions, potential buyers of the Steam version should be aware of these issues.
As of the day of release of this review, Digital Eclipse announced a first patch update ready for release addressing the most urgent fixes.
– Danny (ed.)
Online play
Online play is another big feature, available across most arcade titles and several 16-bit and 32-bit ports. However, not everything is fully functional yet. At launch, matchmaking is limited, and some players may notice missing features such as ranked ladders or friend invites. Digital Eclipse confirmed that these systems will be expanded in a future update to include private matches, custom lobbies, and regional filters.
Once those updates roll out, online play should become the backbone of this collection.
Must-buy for MK-fans?
Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection is a must-buy for anyone who grew up with the original Mortal Kombat games. The sheer number of titles in this set easily justifies its $49.99 digital price, and even the physical editions, ranging from €/$49.99 to €/$79.99 when they arrive in December 2025, feel fairly priced for what’s included.
With twenty-three games available and the promise of more to come, plus online play for most arcade and select home versions, there’s plenty here for long-time fans and newcomers alike. It’s worth noting that owners of the original Nintendo Switch won’t be able to play Mortal Kombat 4 Arcade online due to hardware limitations, though every other platform supports it.
What keeps me from calling this a perfect collection are the omissions from the first three Mortal Kombat titles. Whether those absences stem from programming challenges, licensing issues, or future downloadable content remains to be seen.
Still, revisiting so many versions of Mortal Kombat feels incredible. It takes me back to the moment that sparked my passion for writing about games—the release of the original Mortal Kombat more than thirty years ago. This collection captures that spirit in a way few others could. A job well done by Digital Eclipse and Atari for bringing it all together with such care.
It’s a near double-flawless victory. Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection celebrates every era of the series with the same punch and personality that made it legendary, blending gameplay and documentary storytelling into one cohesive experience. If Digital Eclipse can patch in the few missing ports and expand on Mortal Kombat 4—maybe even add Mortal Kombat Gold—this could easily become the first collection of its kind worthy of a perfect 10 out of 10.
