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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection including the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. 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. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were figuring out how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of live performers, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record made from video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, especially in direct competitive sessions. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the option to have gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

There are plenty of welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. 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. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part