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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. A new collection covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond just a well-emulated set of legendary games and not-so-classics — it additionally serves as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. 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 certain releases. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at derivative games, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and digital copies of vintage posters, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's frankly astounding to observe several early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of analog films and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. At various points, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and artistic style, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, particularly during one-on-one local play. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a couple minor issues — mostly input lag and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to show each character's special moves on-screen and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are character profiles that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a example of historically missing material 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 direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part