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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation including the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at derivative games, 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 is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant pressure to repeat their success. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves on the display and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also character profiles that feature histories and numerous narrative components presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights 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 version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part