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Mortal Kombat still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. The recent anthology covering the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends only a accurately simulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the making of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The anthology contains emulated versions of the original 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 franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, especially in one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unfair the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have another person to compete with — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the creators has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, players have the option to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable gaming hall-style borders surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part