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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, featuring four arcade games, several home system versions, and spinoffs, goes beyond just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. 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 several of these titles. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were figuring out how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — which includes archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having another person to compete with — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the traditional television screens of arcades or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access 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 early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor bug fixes and balance. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part