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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. This latest compilation including the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a rich documentary about the creation of the legendary series.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At certain intervals, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, especially in local multiplayer matches. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unfair the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version never gained traction, in part