🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. A new collection covering the franchise's earliest days, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. The collection includes simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — which includes archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant stress to duplicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from analog films and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, particularly during one-on-one local play. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unfair the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have someone to play against — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version never gained traction, in part