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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — containing vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, especially in local multiplayer matches. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part