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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions 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 collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of live performers, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record made from analog films and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — online play is available in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has included some smart convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, 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 appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part