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This iconic fighting game retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it's also a detailed chronicle about the creation of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

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 brand founders the visionary developers were discovering methods to create a combat title, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — containing historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly 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. Many of the games here stand the test of time, especially in direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves on the display and choose to enable infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part