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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection covering the series' initial period, featuring four arcade games, various home ports, and derivative games, goes beyond just a well-emulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The collection includes 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 several of these titles. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, comics, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and select to activate endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases 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 domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different combat titles absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part