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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a detailed chronicle about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of actual people, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, particularly during one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the creators has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and numerous narrative components displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format 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 head-to-head network battles in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part