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Mortal Kombat still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the series' initial period, which includes four arcade games, various home ports, 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 iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new 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 developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of several of these titles. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of early video game creators, working with minimal planning or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant demand to replicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of analog films and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series 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. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

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 one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unjust the development approached in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate infinite time to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play 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 early attempt by Midway at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part