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The Mortal Kombat series retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection including the series' initial period, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, goes beyond only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, portion interactive museum. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first 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 brand's experiments at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of actual people, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to see a group of young game developers, working with minimal planning or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how the very same individuals contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their success. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At various points, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the coding existed in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the development team has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the option to have gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also combatant descriptions that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition failed to achieve popularity, in part