The Legacy Kollection of Mortal Kombat: A Stunning Success for the Combat Series Franchise

This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the franchise's earliest days, featuring four arcade games, various home ports, and related titles, transcends just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. This compilation features simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to see a group of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various combat titles absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and numerous narrative components presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part