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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology covering the franchise's earliest days, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The collection includes 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. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to create a combat title, produced using film material of live performers, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from modest origins to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and film-based pictures and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At various points, users can directly access a combat game session or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

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 hold up, notably with one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having another person to compete with — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple 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 without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience 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 initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part