🔗 Share this article

This iconic fighting game continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, featuring four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate infinite time to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights 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 version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part