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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the original 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 spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — containing historical videos, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have someone to play against — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and select to activate endless periods to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part