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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 gaming halls. A new collection including the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the legendary series.

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

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes emulated versions of the original 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 brand's experiments 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 highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, on the fly. Watching the documentary — containing vintage recordings, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part