🔗 Share this article

This iconic fighting game continues to hold its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in gaming halls. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, featuring four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, on the fly. Observing the archival material — that features historical videos, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, notably with one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the development approached in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have endless periods to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or domestic TVs, 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 the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" 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 initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part