🔗 Share this article

The Mortal Kombat series retains its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At various points, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For example, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part