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The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. The recent anthology covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and related titles, transcends only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains 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 collection even includes the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features historical videos, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, 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. Several releases here remain enjoyable, notably with one-on-one local play. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and numerous narrative components displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part