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This iconic fighting game retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, which includes four arcade games, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends only a accurately simulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the making of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features simulated releases of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, notably with local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in 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, 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 revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise 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 arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part