Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection: A Stunning Success for the Combat Series Franchise

The Mortal Kombat series retains many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. A new collection spanning the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the legendary series.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, 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, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — containing historical videos, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using 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 disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly 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 stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the option to have arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that feature histories and numerous narrative components shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part