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Mortal Kombat still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, featuring four arcade games, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of some of those games. This compilation also features 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 worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into 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, digitized from footage of actual people, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology 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 rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, notably with direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has added several intelligent user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part