🔗 Share this article

The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the brand's formative years, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the making of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the pioneering 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 spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of VHS tapes and traditional photos and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors 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 spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision 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 stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For example, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the option to have gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that lets you revisit the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part