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This iconic fighting game continues to hold its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. 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 some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of live performers, as they went along. Observing the archival material — that features historical videos, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the option to have arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different combat titles without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part