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This iconic fighting game retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation spanning the brand's formative years, comprising four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a rich documentary about the making of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. This compilation features emulated versions 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. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant demand to replicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are prompts to play the original releases. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, especially in one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to access them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various combat titles excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part