🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, various home ports, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several early video game creators, working with minimal planning or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the actual titles. At certain intervals, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to show each character's special moves on the display and select to activate endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience 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 pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part