🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in gaming halls. This latest compilation covering the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, 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 collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

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 subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have another person to compete with — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and select to activate infinite time to perform a Fatality. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature 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 simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part