🔗 Share this article

This iconic fighting game retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spinoffs, 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 greatest hits compilation, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, 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. Many of the games here hold up, particularly during direct competitive sessions. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part