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This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation covering the series' initial period, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions 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 franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of real actors, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record made from VHS tapes and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that lets you revisit the music from multiple combat titles absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the format 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 head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part