Both types have their dedicated fanbases. For the purist, nothing beats a flawless UMK3 conversion that runs on a modern PC without input lag. For the creative, the "what if" builds offer endless, hilarious, and brutal replayability.

Most major fighting game communities accept MUGEN as an homage, not a piracy tool. You are expected to own a legal copy of Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection or the original ROM if you download the sprites.

If you are a purist who wants the exact arcade experience, stick to Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection via backwards compatibility or Fightcade 2 (which emulates the actual UMK3 ROM with rollback netcode). Fightcade is objectively better for competitive online play.

: Some projects feature "Full HD" menus and UI elements while maintaining the original 2D digitized sprites for gameplay to preserve the nostalgic feel.