🔗 Share this article

The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation including the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The anthology contains simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to create a combat title, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

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 further illustrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, notably with local multiplayer matches. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

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 Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and numerous narrative components presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise 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 one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part