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This iconic fighting game still possesses many hidden mysteries and the power to astonish, over three decades after its original launch in gaming halls. This latest compilation spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle about the making of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features emulated versions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of some of those games. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but a study of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were figuring out how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of actual people, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing vintage recordings, contemporary discussions, and scans of old flyers, comics, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a international craze. It's genuinely amazing to see a group of young game 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 traces the growth of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how these identical developers contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and traditional photos and hand-drawn illustrations, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and character sprites among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the original releases. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I spent the bulk of my time playing the arcade classics, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unfair the programming was in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking someone to play against — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Display Features

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the collection, a blend of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, you can choose to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete obscure techniques to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection provides highly authentic options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or domestic TVs, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. A notably appreciated element is the setting to activate coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are combatant descriptions that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

Among the most significant features for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the guise of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at head-to-head network battles in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part