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The Mortal Kombat series retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the franchise's earliest days, which includes four arcade games, various home ports, and derivative games, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The collection includes emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The anthology additionally contains 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 thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. At various points, users can directly access a combat game session or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking someone to play against — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, 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 primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For instance, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the option to have arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part