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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in gaming halls. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and spinoffs, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at derivative games, 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 greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — that features historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant pressure to repeat their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has included some smart convenience enhancements and display customization choices. As an illustration, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various combat titles excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the guise 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 one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part