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This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The collection includes emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, as they went along. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record made from analog films and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. At various points, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I spent the bulk 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 hold up, especially in direct competitive sessions. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part