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Mortal Kombat continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its initial debut in gaming halls. The recent anthology including the brand's formative years, featuring four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond just a well-emulated series of classics along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, 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. This compilation also features the series' ventures at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of live performers, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a mix of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, users can elect to show each character's special moves during gameplay and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Visually, the games can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, 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 faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The online-enabled release of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part