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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation including the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. This compilation also features the series' ventures at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — containing archival footage, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece made from VHS tapes and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the games themselves. At various points, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the development team has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also character profiles that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part