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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

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

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes 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 some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — containing historical videos, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record made from analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, notably with one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — 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 collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part