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Mortal Kombat retains many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it's also a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

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

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, particularly during one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate 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 setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" 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 initial venture by the company 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 battle network competitors and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part