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The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in gaming halls. A new collection including the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends only a accurately simulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to see a group of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant pressure to repeat their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record made from video recordings and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy 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. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag 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. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple combat titles without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part