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Mortal Kombat retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the brand's formative years, featuring four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes archival footage, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, 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 Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of analog films and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, particularly during direct competitive sessions. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the form 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 direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part