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The Mortal Kombat series retains its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. A new collection including the franchise's earliest days, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the creation of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, 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. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at derivative games, like action-oriented titles 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 greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were discovering methods to create a combat title, produced using film material of real actors, as they went along. Observing the archival material — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from analog films and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. It also includes some unreleased actions and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the games themselves. At various points, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version didn't find widespread adoption, in part