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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions 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 brand's experiments at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part