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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its initial debut in arcades. The recent anthology including the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

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

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. The collection includes digitally recreated editions 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 series' ventures at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — containing historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even company memos — 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, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, especially in local multiplayer matches. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, 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. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part