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This iconic fighting game retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection covering the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, is more than only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. This compilation features emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of live performers, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, working with minimal planning or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At various points, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision 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. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unfair the coding existed in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — online play is available in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the creators has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves on the display and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that include bios and the various bits of lore presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part