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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — that features archival footage, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant pressure to repeat their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At various points, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having 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 collection, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform complicated methods to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of gaming halls or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the option to have gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part