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This iconic fighting game retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Watching the documentary — that features vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to see a group of pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

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 remain enjoyable, particularly during one-on-one local play. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, you can choose to show each character's special moves on the display and select to activate endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part