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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, various home ports, and related titles, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

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

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the first 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. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries 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.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. During specific moments, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, particularly during direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part