🔗 Share this article

This iconic fighting game retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its initial debut in gaming halls. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, is more than just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it's also a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. The anthology contains emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of VHS tapes and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, especially in local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking someone to play against — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and select to activate infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various combat titles absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part