Mortal Kombat's Legacy Kollection: A Stunning Success for the Combat Series Series

Mortal Kombat continues to hold its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes 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 original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were discovering methods to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes archival footage, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of video recordings and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations 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 includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, 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. Several releases here hold up, especially in direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have another person to compete with — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part