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Mortal Kombat retains numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, over three decades after its original launch in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology covering the brand's formative years, featuring four arcade games, several home system versions, and derivative games, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced series of classics and not-so-classics — it's also a detailed chronicle about the making of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Defines the Legacy Kollection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, section playable historical record. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of some of those games. The collection even includes the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases 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 greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and brand founders Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of real actors, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — that features historical videos, contemporary discussions, and digital copies of vintage posters, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to observe several early video game creators, developing without clear direction or supervision, focus their cultural enthusiasms into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It represents an intriguing historical record constructed using VHS tapes and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to reexperience its mechanics and visual presentation, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I spent the bulk of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here hold up, especially in direct competitive sessions. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a reminder of how crude and unjust the coding existed in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Without having another person to compete with — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but rather basic in functionality — the experience will be incomplete.

Display Features

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, 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 development team has included some smart quality-of-life features and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to show each character's special moves on-screen and choose to enable endless periods to execute finishing moves. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of gaming halls or household displays, or the monochrome green display of a Game Boy. A notably appreciated element is the choice to enable coin-op-inspired frames surrounding the screen, with the specific combat game you're playing accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that lets you revisit the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Also present are fighter biographies that feature histories and the various bits of lore presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and endings.

Archival Discovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in arcades. This network version 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