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This iconic fighting game continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, which includes four arcade games, various home ports, and related titles, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record made from VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unused moves and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable infinite time to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part