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This iconic fighting game continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, which includes four original arcade titles, various home ports, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The collection includes emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to create a combat title, produced using film material of live performers, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the actual titles. During specific moments, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, notably with one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has included some smart quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part