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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than just a well-emulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several early video game creators, working with minimal planning or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using video recordings and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At various points, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, especially in direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to access them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration 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 practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small bug fixes and balance. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part