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Mortal Kombat still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, various home ports, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

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

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures 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 “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of actual people, on the fly. Watching the documentary — containing archival footage, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from VHS tapes and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are opportunities to engage with the original releases. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part