🔗 Share this article

Mortal Kombat still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action games 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 “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when developer Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were discovering methods to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of VHS tapes and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the option to have gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different combat titles absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the form 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. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part