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The Mortal Kombat series still possesses its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, more than 30 years after its initial debut in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, comprising four arcade games, several home system versions, and related titles, transcends only a accurately simulated set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a comprehensive historical account about the development of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated devotee of the franchise who has paid close attention its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, part historical documentation, part playable archive. This compilation features digitally recreated editions of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, along with home system and portable adaptations of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the series' ventures at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a greatest hits compilation, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of actual people, on the fly. Viewing the historical footage — 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 modest origins to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of Mortal Kombat and its creators' careers at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals contended with how to regularly outdo their previous work, experiencing considerable demand to replicate their success. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and film-based pictures and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the franchise's production method and how personal recommendations helped spread its rumors and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable series of documentary shorts that covers video games, graphic novels, movies and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its previously unreleased material.

Playable Component

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. At various points, audience members can jump into a game of Mortal Kombat or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here stand the test of time, particularly during one-on-one local play. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having a human opponent — network gaming is included in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the anthology, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are precisely simulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent user experience improvements and display customization choices. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves on the display and opt to have infinite time to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform complicated methods to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple graphical effects and display options. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate filters that mimic the traditional television screens of arcades or domestic TVs, or the limited color monitor of a portable gaming device. A particularly nice touch is the setting to activate gaming hall-style borders encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's remarkably visually appealing.

Extra Content

Players will discover multiple appreciated elements beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different fighting releases excluding the sounds of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. Also present are character profiles that feature histories and the various bits of lore shown through the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans 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 pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The Wavenet Edition of the game is practically indistinguishable to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part