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The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and derivative games, goes beyond just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes 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 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 consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At various points, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that allows users to rediscover 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 presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" 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 head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version never gained traction, in part