🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, various home ports, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation 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 learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports 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 — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the original releases. At various points, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly 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. Many of the games here hold up, notably with local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart quality-of-life features and display customization choices. As an illustration, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the format 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 one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part