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The Mortal Kombat series retains many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection spanning the brand's formative years, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The anthology contains simulated releases of the original 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 franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were figuring out how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and numerous narrative components shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part