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This iconic fighting game continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unused moves and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. At various points, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the coding existed in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and select to activate endless periods to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part