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Mortal Kombat still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends only a accurately simulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The anthology contains simulated releases of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of young game developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, especially in direct competitive sessions. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For instance, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and select to activate infinite time to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also combatant descriptions that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part