🔗 Share this article

The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. A new collection including the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The anthology contains simulated releases of the first 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 franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an examination of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, as they went along. Watching the documentary — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, 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 modern hardware.

I allocated the majority 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, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has added several intelligent user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and select to activate endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part