Mortal Kombat's Legacy Kollection: A Near-Flawless Victory for the Fighting Game Franchise

This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation covering the franchise's earliest days, featuring four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of young game developers, working with minimal planning or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. At various points, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, notably with direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having someone to play against — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames 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.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various combat titles without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also combatant descriptions that include bios and numerous narrative components displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans 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 moderately improved edition 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 almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part