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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. The anthology contains emulated versions of the first 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 spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were determining how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing archival footage, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets 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 game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the original releases. At various points, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have another person to compete with — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has included some smart quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete 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 effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the form 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 one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part