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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of live performers, as they went along. Watching the documentary — that features archival footage, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of VHS tapes and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unused moves and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having someone to play against — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the option to have arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that include bios and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part