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Mortal Kombat still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology including the brand's formative years, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the legendary series.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

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 first 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. The collection even includes the series' ventures 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 is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing historical videos, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. As an illustration, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the CRT monitors of arcades or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part