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This iconic fighting game retains its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the series' initial period, comprising four arcade games, several home system versions, and spinoffs, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a rich documentary about the creation of the iconic franchise.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. The anthology contains digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, plus console and handheld ports of some of those games. 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 — two of the franchise's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were figuring out how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — that features vintage recordings, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, working with minimal planning or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their success. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of video recordings and analog photographs and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are prompts to play the original releases. At various points, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, notably with direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unjust the coding existed in the series' initial installments. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and graphical adjustment settings. As an illustration, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and opt to have unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice accurately and softly reflecting against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

There are plenty of appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, featuring an audio component that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the demo sequences of coin-op titles and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the format 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 head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. This network version of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update never gained traction, in part