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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 initial debut in gaming halls. A new collection covering the franchise's earliest days, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of some of those games. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

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 determining how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At certain intervals, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay 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. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and display customization choices. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have endless periods to perform a Fatality. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part