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Mortal Kombat still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, 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 series' ventures at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of real actors, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from VHS tapes and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, notably with local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, 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 primarily displayed authentically, the development team has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. As an illustration, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part