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This iconic fighting game continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its initial debut in arcades. The recent anthology including the series' initial period, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and spinoffs, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were discovering methods to develop a battle series, produced using film material of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. At various points, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the tunes of various fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part