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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. This latest compilation covering the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and related titles, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the legendary series.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The collection includes emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record made from VHS tapes and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, notably with local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to obtain them.

Visually, the games 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 gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part