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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. This compilation features emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of actual people, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — that features historical videos, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to see a group of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how these identical developers addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I allocated the majority 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, particularly during one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the creators has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, eliminating the need to execute some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also combatant descriptions that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version never gained traction, in part