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Mortal Kombat retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in gaming halls. A new collection covering the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. 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 collection even includes 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 “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to create a combat title, produced using film material of real actors, on the fly. Watching the documentary — containing vintage recordings, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves 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, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I allocated the majority 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 direct competitive sessions. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and numerous narrative components displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part