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The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, is more than just a well-emulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The collection includes simulated releases of the pioneering 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. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. 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 modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the format 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 coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version never gained traction, in part