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Mortal Kombat continues to hold its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology including the franchise's earliest days, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it's also a detailed chronicle about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The collection includes simulated releases of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of actual people, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At various points, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, notably with one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — online play is available in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element 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 remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that feature histories and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion 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 particular edition, 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. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part