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The Mortal Kombat series retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the making of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. 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 certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles 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 highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, as they went along. Observing the archival material — that features historical videos, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in direct competitive sessions. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having someone to play against — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and choose to enable infinite time to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the traditional television screens of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that feature histories and numerous narrative components presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part