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Mortal Kombat retains numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in arcades. The recent anthology covering the brand's formative years, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and derivative games, goes beyond just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to observe several early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, particularly during local multiplayer matches. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part