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This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it's also a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

As a dedicated 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 Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The collection includes emulated versions of the original 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 franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from VHS tapes and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically 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 aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, 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 display customization choices. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and select to activate endless periods to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce 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 choice to enable gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

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 version of the game, 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. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part