Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection: An Almost Perfect Triumph for the Fighting Game Brand

The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends only a accurately simulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it's also a detailed chronicle about the creation of the legendary series.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes 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. The collection even includes the series' ventures at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to see a group of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of VHS tapes and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the creators has added several intelligent user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the tunes of various combat titles without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and numerous narrative components presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. 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. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part