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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, is more than just a well-emulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it's also a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. This compilation features digitally recreated editions 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. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, 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, produced using film material of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record made from VHS tapes and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unused moves and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has added several intelligent user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic 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 arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release 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. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part