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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in arcades. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention 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 other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, 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 some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — containing vintage recordings, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using video recordings and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. At certain intervals, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the creators has included some smart user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and select to activate endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the option to have arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that lets you revisit the tunes of various fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration 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 virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part