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This iconic fighting game continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its original launch in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, various home ports, and derivative games, transcends only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. The collection includes simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, 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 global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have someone to play against — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves on-screen and choose to enable infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that include bios and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material 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 head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part