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Mortal Kombat still possesses its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, which includes four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the making of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was much to discover for me to understand and value about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The collection includes simulated releases of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, 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 a study of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several young game developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach 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. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a Mortal Kombat title or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, 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 coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are accurately emulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart quality-of-life features and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to show each character's special moves on the display and choose to enable endless periods to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the format 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 coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part