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This iconic fighting game retains numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the making of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when developer Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to observe several early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has included some smart user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part