Mortal Kombat's Legacy Kollection: A Near-Flawless Victory for the Combat Series Franchise

This iconic fighting game retains many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. The collection even includes the series' ventures at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of actual people, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to see a group of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant demand to replicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. 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. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, particularly during one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part