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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. This latest compilation covering the franchise's earliest days, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the legendary series.

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

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures 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 highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, especially in local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part