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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, which includes four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, notably with one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and select to activate infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple fighting releases excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that include bios and the various bits of lore displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part