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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, featuring four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. This compilation features simulated releases 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 brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — containing vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece made from analog films and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders 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 welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise 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 gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part