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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. This latest compilation covering the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it's also a detailed chronicle 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 much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were figuring out how to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or supervision, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, encountering significant stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. At various points, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, notably with one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and select to activate endless periods to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick 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 CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part