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

The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in gaming halls. A new collection covering the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases 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 highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — containing historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record made from video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and the various bits of lore presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part