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Mortal Kombat still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The collection includes simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains 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 most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to see a group of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, especially in direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking a human opponent — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch 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 simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part