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This iconic fighting game still possesses its share of secrets and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection including the series' initial period, featuring four original arcade titles, several home system versions, and related titles, goes beyond simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like combat-focused releases 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 highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and its creators' careers 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 stress to duplicate their triumphs. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using analog films and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. During specific moments, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a console adaptation to revisit its gameplay and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, especially in direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a combination of arcade, console, and handheld games, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and select to activate endless periods to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute complicated methods to access them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also combatant descriptions that feature histories and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part