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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its original launch in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation including the brand's formative years, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, goes beyond just a well-emulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it's also a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions 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 anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — containing vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. At various points, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, notably with one-on-one local play. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the option to have arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part