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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation including the brand's formative years, featuring four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it's also a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. This compilation features simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of actual people, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, 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 the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films 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 quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a combat game session or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, notably with local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having someone to play against — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves on-screen and select to activate endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform complicated methods to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part