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Mortal Kombat still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. A new collection including the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to understand and value 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, 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, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were figuring out how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Watching the documentary — that features vintage recordings, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, especially in direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the development team has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and display customization choices. As an illustration, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that include bios and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and contained several small bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part