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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 gaming halls. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and derivative games, transcends just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a rich documentary about the development of the legendary series.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, section playable historical record. The collection includes simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. 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 — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to make a fighting game, digitized from footage of real actors, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing vintage recordings, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record composed of analog films and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, 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 unused moves and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on current technology.

I spent the bulk of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are conversely remarkably unintelligent. If you don't have someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has incorporated various clever convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, users can elect to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have infinite time to execute finishing moves. Additionally available are settings for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be experienced with numerous graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the traditional television screens of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the option to have arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the specific combat game you're playing faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. Also present are character profiles that include bios and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. Yet this online edition never gained traction, in part