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Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and related titles, goes beyond only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The collection includes simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, on the fly. Watching the documentary — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. 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 character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the actual titles. At various points, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics 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 direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that feature histories and numerous narrative components displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part