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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in gaming halls. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time 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 Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to develop a battle series, produced using film material of actual people, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration 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 almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part