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This iconic fighting game continues to hold its share of secrets and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it's also a detailed chronicle about the making of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — that features vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. During specific moments, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, 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. Many of the games here hold up, especially in local multiplayer matches. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Visually, the games 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 arcades or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion 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 one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part