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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation covering the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

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

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of several of these titles. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases 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 greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan 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 the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the actual titles. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, especially in local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable 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 very artistically charming.

Extra Content

There are plenty of welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part