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Mortal Kombat retains numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. The recent anthology spanning the brand's formative years, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it additionally serves as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the renowned brand.

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 Makes the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. The collection includes digitally recreated editions of the pioneering 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 derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but a study of the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of real actors, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from modest origins to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to observe several pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Documentary Portion

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule made from analog films and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped disseminate its secrets and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's an eminently watchable series of documentary shorts that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unused moves and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Interspersed along the five-part documentary's timeline are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

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, particularly during local multiplayer matches. Yet competing with the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the creators has included some smart convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete 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 effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Game Boy. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice faithfully and subtly duplicating against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different fighting releases without the din of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for committed franchise followers is the ability to access a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in gaming halls. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but provided the ability to challenge online opponents and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part