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Mortal Kombat still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. 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 anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were discovering methods to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, notably with local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond 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 fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part