🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat still possesses its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, various home ports, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, 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, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles 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 greatest hits compilation, but a study of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. At various points, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. 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.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases 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. An especially welcome feature is the option to have arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts 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 somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version never gained traction, in part