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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond just a well-emulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it's also a rich documentary about the development of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. This compilation features simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from modest origins to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, especially in local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the coding existed in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have someone to play against — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part