The Legacy Kollection of Mortal Kombat: A Near-Flawless Victory for the Combat Series Brand

Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. 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 franchise's attempts at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were figuring out how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — which includes archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece made from VHS tapes and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations 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 thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk 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, notably with local multiplayer matches. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has added several intelligent user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and select to activate endless periods to perform a Fatality. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also character profiles that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version never gained traction, in part