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Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection including 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 additionally serves as a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The anthology contains simulated releases 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 series' ventures at spinoffs, 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 “best of” collection, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — that features historical videos, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant pressure to repeat their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, notably with one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

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 particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part