The Legacy Kollection of Mortal Kombat: A Stunning Success for the Combat Series Brand

This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise 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 Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Watching the documentary — containing archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists 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 collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch 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.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" 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 pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release 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. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part