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This iconic fighting game continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in arcades. This latest compilation covering the brand's formative years, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, 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, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when developer Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes archival footage, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of VHS tapes and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series 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 collection additionally features some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, especially in local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the development team has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part