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This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its initial debut in gaming halls. A new collection spanning the franchise's earliest days, featuring four arcade games, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the creation of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. 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 certain releases. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — containing vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant pressure to repeat their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, 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 virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part