The Legacy Kollection of Mortal Kombat: An Almost Perfect Triumph for the Fighting Game Brand

Mortal Kombat retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the legendary series.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention 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 previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of live performers, as they went along. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant pressure to repeat their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly 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. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also character profiles that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part