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Mortal Kombat continues to hold its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures 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 is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing archival footage, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At various points, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version 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, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and select to activate infinite time to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the form 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 head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part