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Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention 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 other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. This compilation features 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 brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of young game developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, notably with direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unfair the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version never gained traction, in part