Big fan of fighting games here. As if this wasn’t common knowledge. As a fan of old-school Mortal Kombat I was thrilled when I finally was able to download the Arcade Kollection, after months of the reveal announcement – sorry that was a mistake – reveal announcement treatment. It finally came out though, and at a surprisingly cheap price of 10 bucks! Let’s see how it holds up.

The games included in this kollection (ah, stylizing) are Mortal Kombat [the original, of course], Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The first game was the one that started it all, introducing motion-captured live-action actors throwing punches, kicks and special battle animations for finishers and projectiles. This game was known for its extreme violence, as the live-action-style of the characters being crossed with gushing blood caused public outcry (this was actually one of the games that got the ESRB going!). The second one made some improvements and added new characters and functionality, including new finishers. Considering it is the best in the series, it’s unfortunate that the third game would end up being considered less of a classic, but is known in its own right as being pretty crazy, with a charm of its own.

These ports are arcade perfect. Which, depending on your preference, may not be so great. The first Mortal Kombat game suffers from a good amount of input lag. That is, the amount of time between you pressing the button and the input actually being transposed into your character’s movement or action. The other two are considerably better about this, but it still exists to an extent.

A defining feature of the arcade games is the ridiculous AI. Thanks to the aforementioned input lag, the game actually knows your inputs before they do anything on screen. Now, Midway at the time was all about making money, and there’s a reason those quarters piled up in their machines. Because of the input lag, the AI could actually know what moves you made before they came out, and as a result, would have flawless defense, and have perfect counters while you’re wide open. They also didn’t have to perform inputs to use special moves, so they have that advantage, too.

There is a difficulty setting, but it didn’t really seem to make a difference. I do remember the difficulty settings actually meaning something in the console ports of the respective games, where putting it on an easier setting would actually, you know, make the game easier. The AI is by no means unbeatable, but you have to take a completely different approach to it than if fighting a human player. This isn’t any different from other fighters in that the two experiences are totally different, but in this kind of game, the AI is arguably even tougher than any human player could be, due to being able to read inputs directly as opposed to having to read visual cues.

So you might be asking, “Forrest, why does the AI matter in a fighting game?” Thanks for the hypothetical question! See, I’m not going to lie. The netcode is…well, let’s be honest. It’s shit. So just imagine the worst netcode you can possibly fathom out of a 90′s arcade fighting game port, and add it onto…well, the worst input lag you can possibly fathom out of a 90′s arcade fighting game port. I couldn’t stomach more than a couple of matches, and I’ve played King of Fighters XII online for hours on end (a game with netcode as one of its worst criticisms, by the way). There are only two-player lobbies; you can’t spectate or record. There was virtually no effort put into online implementation, and it shows. By far the most disappointing aspect of this collection, and in this day and age, one of the ones it needed.

So let’s see, we have tedious single-player modes, and we have unbearable online modes, which only really leaves us with local multiplayer to have some legitimate fun with the games, which is how it has always been, to me. If you have local friends who’d like to throw down with these games, then it’s worth at least considering dropping the money. It’s a cheap collection, 3 games for 10 bucks. However the package is riddled with flaws, and unless you love the signature AI this game brings to the table, you probably won’t find many ways to enjoy this game.

3/7