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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in arcades. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and spinoffs, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the legendary series.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The anthology contains simulated releases of the first 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 spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game 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 the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of analog films and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during one-on-one local play. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the development team has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For instance, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a piece of "lost media" in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part