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

Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and spinoffs, goes beyond just a well-emulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated 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 Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. 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. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent 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 develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — containing historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of young game developers, working with minimal planning or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of VHS tapes and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the traditional television screens of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and numerous narrative components displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part