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The Mortal Kombat series retains many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, produced using film material of real actors, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the original releases. During specific moments, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk 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. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that lets you revisit the music from multiple combat titles without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in arcades. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part