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The Mortal Kombat series retains many hidden mysteries and the capacity to surprise, over three decades after its original launch in arcades. A new collection including the brand's formative years, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the legendary series.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, 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, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of real actors, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's truly remarkable to see a group of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators addressed how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which reveal the self-made character of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. The collection additionally features some unreleased actions and character sprites among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on current technology.

I allocated the majority of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here hold up, notably with direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents blatantly cheat to win or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. Without having another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the anthology, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, players have the option to show each character's special moves during gameplay and select to activate unlimited duration to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to obtain them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the traditional television screens of arcades or home televisions, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans 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 early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight glitch repairs and refinements. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part