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This iconic fighting game still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its development and progression, 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 historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions 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. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from VHS tapes and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of arcades or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion 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 specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part