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This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation covering the brand's formative years, featuring four arcade games, various home ports, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. This compilation features emulated versions of the pioneering 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 franchise's attempts at derivative games, like action-oriented titles 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 greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were figuring out how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the coding existed in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple combat titles absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that include bios and the various bits of lore 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 opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content 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 pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part