🔗 Share this article

This iconic fighting game continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology covering the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the creation of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains simulated releases of the original 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 collection even includes the series' ventures at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from simple starts to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to see a group of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the original releases. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

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 remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the development team has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part