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The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in arcades. This latest compilation covering the brand's formative years, featuring four original arcade titles, various home ports, and related titles, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to develop a battle series, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record made from VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, notably with one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has included some smart quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that lets you revisit the tunes of various combat titles without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" 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 direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part