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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. A new collection including the series' initial period, which includes four arcade games, various home ports, and related titles, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The collection includes 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. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of live performers, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes archival footage, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to observe several early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly 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 computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate 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 remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various combat titles excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part