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Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the brand's formative years, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, transcends only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a detailed chronicle about the making of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. This compilation features simulated releases of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the series' ventures at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and brand founders the visionary developers were figuring out how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even company memos — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how these identical developers reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from video recordings and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and even the silly live-action tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here hold up, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking another person to compete with — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or domestic TVs, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, containing a soundtrack mode that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part