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Mortal Kombat still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and derivative games, goes beyond just a well-emulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in direct competitive sessions. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have someone to play against — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various combat titles absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play 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 direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part