The Legacy Kollection of Mortal Kombat: A Near-Flawless Victory for the Combat Series Brand

The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology spanning the series' initial period, featuring four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features emulated versions of the original 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 series' ventures at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant demand to replicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the games themselves. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features 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 particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part