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This iconic fighting game retains many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. This compilation features emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — containing vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the actual titles. At certain intervals, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy 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. Several releases here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the option to have gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part