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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the renowned brand.

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

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. 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 several of these titles. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were figuring out how to create a combat title, produced using film material of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, comics, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part