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Mortal Kombat still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in gaming halls. The recent anthology covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the pioneering 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 brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations 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 five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the original releases. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that lets you revisit the tunes of various fighting releases excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, 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 practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part