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Mortal Kombat retains many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in gaming halls. This latest compilation covering the brand's formative years, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering 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 brand's experiments at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of analog films and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and numerous narrative components presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part