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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. This latest compilation including the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to see a group of pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. 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 franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the actual titles. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves on-screen and select to activate infinite time to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form 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 one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part