🔗 Share this article

This iconic fighting game continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece made from analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in direct competitive sessions. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to obtain them.

Visually, the games 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 domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the tunes of various combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version 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 compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part