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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the brand's formative years, comprising four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

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

What Constitutes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions 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 — some of the brand's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Watching the documentary — that features archival footage, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's astonishing to observe how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped disseminate its secrets and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy 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 remain enjoyable, notably with local multiplayer matches. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and choose to enable unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience 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 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. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part