The Legacy Kollection of Mortal Kombat: An Almost Perfect Triumph for the Fighting Game Franchise

This iconic fighting game retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in gaming halls. This latest compilation covering the series' initial period, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, goes beyond only a accurately simulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. The anthology contains emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant demand to replicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, especially in direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, 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. Also present are character profiles that include bios and numerous narrative components presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part