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This iconic fighting game still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, which includes four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, on the fly. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of video recordings and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, especially in local multiplayer matches. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and visual presentation options. As an illustration, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to access 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. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers 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 slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and contained several small error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part