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This iconic fighting game still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its first appearance in arcades. This latest compilation including the franchise's earliest days, which includes a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it's also a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. The collection includes emulated versions of the original 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 franchise's attempts at derivative games, 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 examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were figuring out how to develop a battle series, created from video recordings of live performers, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to watch a handful of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline 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, simulated with remarkable precision 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. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in direct competitive sessions. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the development approached in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — network gaming is included in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For example, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are fighter biographies that include bios and numerous narrative components presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the format 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 one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part