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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation including the brand's formative years, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. This compilation features simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the original releases. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, particularly during one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and select to activate unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are character profiles that include bios and numerous narrative components presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part