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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, is more than just a well-emulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features simulated releases of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments 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 highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of actual people, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — containing vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic 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 setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, 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 practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part