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The Mortal Kombat series retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection including the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the legendary series.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. 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 consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record made from video recordings and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At various points, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with direct competitive sessions. However, facing 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 obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have another person to compete with — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — 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 faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise 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 head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part