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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in coin-op establishments. A new collection including the franchise's earliest days, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, goes beyond only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has carefully followed its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at spin-off titles, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to create a combat title, produced using film material of live performers, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, recent conversations, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's incredible to witness how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece composed of VHS tapes and analog photographs and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the silly live-action tour. The collection additionally features some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and graphics, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, especially in local multiplayer matches. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, the creators has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and select to activate endless periods to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, including a music player that enables players to reexperience the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games without the din of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. The Wavenet Edition of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and included some minor glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part