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This iconic fighting game still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its initial debut in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. This compilation features simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of some of those games. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved 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 guidance, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers 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 slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version never gained traction, in part