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This iconic fighting game still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its initial debut in arcades. A new collection spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, various home ports, and spinoffs, goes beyond just a well-emulated series of classics and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the making of the renowned brand.

Even as a lifelong enthusiast of the series who has closely monitored its origins and transformation, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to understand and value about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the original arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of several of these titles. The collection even includes the franchise's attempts at spinoffs, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' most criticized releases.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a “best of” collection, but an examination of the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to develop a battle series, digitized from footage of live performers, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — which includes vintage recordings, recent conversations, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into creating a legendary video game series.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using VHS tapes and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's an eminently watchable set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the silly live-action tour. It also includes some unreleased actions and character sprites among its cutting-room-floor content.

Playable Component

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology are invitations to experience the original releases. During specific moments, users can directly access a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time experiencing the original arcade titles, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Technical Presentation

The twenty-three accessible Mortal Kombat titles in the compilation, a mix of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are precisely simulated, though I have noticed 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 user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For example, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and opt to have endless periods to execute finishing moves. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform complicated methods to access them.

Graphically, the titles can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of gaming halls or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the option to have gaming hall-style borders framing the gameplay, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Features

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that enables players to reexperience the tunes of various Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are combatant descriptions that contain backgrounds and the various bits of lore presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

A particularly notable inclusion for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access 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 early attempt by Midway at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to challenge online opponents and contained several small bug fixes and balance. However, this network version never gained traction, in part