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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the iconic franchise.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, as they went along. Observing the archival material — containing historical videos, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some unused moves and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a Mortal Kombat title or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and choose to enable infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature 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 artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various fighting releases without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material 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. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part