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Mortal Kombat continues to hold its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, which includes four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the making of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of certain releases. 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 — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, notably with direct competitive sessions. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and select to activate infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various combat titles absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part