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The Mortal Kombat series retains many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise 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 Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from modest origins to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At various points, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various combat titles without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are character profiles that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material 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. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part