Digital Eclipse is one of the more unique developers because not only does it create a slate of original indie titles, typically with a pixelated art direction, but they also act as preservation specialists, offering an authentic way to experience some of the greatest video game innovations throughout the years. This initiative has led to Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection, Disney Classic Games Collection, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, and countless others. One of the upcoming projects that fits into this theme is Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, a title that basically brings together many of the original Mortal Kombat experiences and presents them on modern systems but in the way that they originally looked and played.
In total, we're talking over 20 Mortal Kombat games, most of which launched in the 90s. There are familiar fan-favourites like Mortal Kombat 2, but also more obscure variants of these games, and even the twisted spinoffs that never particularly caught the attention of fans, including Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and each of these are served up in their original form, difficulty and quirky design entirely in-tact.
Essentially, if you have ever wondered how Mortal Kombat changed over the years, how the series played differently on Game Boy, Super NES, Sega Mega Drive, Game Gear, arcade machines, and so much more, this collection has all the answers and then some. It's the ultimate celebration of the beloved fighting game series, a love letter to the brand that is enhanced and bolstered with a ton of behind-the-scenes footage and snippets from NetherRealm that explore how these titles came to become a reality, shining a light on the characters who never made the cut, the versions that never took hold, and the mythical secrets that gripped so many in an age before the Internet removed any cloud of doubt.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is once again Digital Eclipse at its best. It's an authentic and fun way to experience video game history, albeit with a few much appreciated modern tough ups. There are UI improvements that now show the various moves for each character and even how to perform fatalities so you don't have to jot everything down on paper or remember the respective inputs. There are ways to access some of the more challenging secrets, like unlocking Noob Saibot and the famed fight against Reptile, plus helpful tweaks that make some of the more demanding games less overwhelming, like a thousand-life slider in Mythologies: Sub-Zero so you don't want to throw your controller at your TV when you die and have to start from scratch for the umpteenth time despite not leaving the starting area. Again, the theme with this game is authentic representation combined with actually helpful adjustments, many of which have been performed by tweaking the actual source code of the various games, meaning while altered, these are still very much the original titles you are playing.
With hours of documentary footage and tons of images and artwork from Mortal Kombat's creation and growth in the 90s, plus countless admittedly similar but also unique versions of these famed games to play, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is shaping up to be a truly great addition for anyone interested in gaming history and what went into making such a hit three decades ago. As many of these games are either inaccessible today, or lost to the annals of time (or at least they were...), it's quite an unmissable project for Mortal Kombat fans, which is simply Digital Eclipse doing what it does best once more.
