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Mortal Kombat continues to hold its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. A new collection spanning the brand's formative years, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The collection includes emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the original releases. During specific moments, users can directly access a combat game session or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, notably with local multiplayer matches. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also character profiles that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the form 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 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 battle network competitors and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part