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Mortal Kombat retains many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its initial debut in gaming halls. The recent anthology including the brand's formative years, comprising four arcade games, several home system versions, and related titles, goes beyond only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

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

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. 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 some of those games. This compilation also features 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 least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were figuring out how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing vintage recordings, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the coding existed in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have someone to play against — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the development team has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part