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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of actual people, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and analog photographs and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, particularly during one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — online play is available in the majority of included games, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and select to activate endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades 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 the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part