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The Mortal Kombat series continues to hold numerous undisclosed elements and the power to astonish, over three decades after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection including the brand's formative years, which includes four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, is more than just a well-emulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. The collection includes simulated releases 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 collection even includes the franchise's attempts at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a highlight reel anthology, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, on the fly. Observing the archival material — containing vintage recordings, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, illustrated stories, and even company memos — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant pressure to repeat their success. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of VHS tapes and analog photographs and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some never-implemented techniques and game character images among its archived development assets.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At various points, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, recreated with impressive accuracy on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during local multiplayer matches. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having another person to compete with — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I detected a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are mostly shown in their original form, the creators has added several intelligent quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and select to activate endless periods to perform a Fatality. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete complicated methods to obtain them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the CRT monitors of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Game Boy. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a piece of "lost media" in the format 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. This network version of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part