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Mortal Kombat still possesses its share of secrets and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its first appearance in arcades. A new collection including the series' initial period, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, several home system versions, and derivative games, goes beyond only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles along with lesser-known entries — it's also a rich documentary about the making of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Defines the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other vintage game anthologies from developer Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, portion interactive museum. This compilation features emulated versions of the pioneering arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. This compilation also features the brand's experiments at spinoffs, like combat-focused releases Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a “best of” collection, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to create a combat title, created from video recordings of actual people, through experimentation. Watching the documentary — containing archival footage, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's astonishing to observe how the franchise evolved from humble beginnings to a international craze. It's frankly astounding to observe several pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or guidance, channel their pop-culture interests into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals contended with how to consistently surpass their achievements, experiencing considerable stress to duplicate their triumphs. It represents an intriguing historical record made from VHS tapes and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series in its peak period in gaming halls. Presented in manageable segments, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the games themselves. At certain intervals, audience members can jump into a combat game session or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and artistic style, recreated with impressive accuracy on current technology.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here stand the test of time, notably with one-on-one local play. But playing against the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unjust the programming was in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having someone to play against — internet multiplayer exists in most titles in the collection, but somewhat limited in options — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the collection, a combination of gaming hall, television, and mobile releases, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a few small quirks — mainly control latency and intermittent errors, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are mostly shown in their original form, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and opt to have endless periods to complete lethal techniques. Also included are choices for accessing hidden fighters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate effects that reproduce the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades or household displays, or the limited color monitor of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, 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

The collection includes numerous welcome features besides the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that lets you revisit the soundtracks of different Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also character profiles that include bios and the various bits of lore displayed via the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

Among the most significant features for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a segment of previously unavailable content in the format of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, 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. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight error corrections and adjustments. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part