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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its initial debut in coin-op establishments. The recent anthology including the franchise's earliest days, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, goes beyond only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the development of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated enthusiast of the series who has paid close attention its development and progression, there was plenty new for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, part playable archive. 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 certain releases. This compilation also features the franchise's attempts at spin-off titles, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the series' formative period, when the development team Midway and series co-creators the visionary developers were determining how to make a fighting game, created from video recordings of real actors, as they went along. Viewing the historical footage — which includes historical videos, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from simple starts to a global sensation. It's frankly astounding to observe several young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or supervision, channel their pop-culture interests into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of Mortal Kombat and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It then goes on to show how those same creators reckoned with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant stress to duplicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using analog films and film-based pictures and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging collection of mini-documentaries that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unreleased actions and game character images among its archived development assets.

Playable Component

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. At certain intervals, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or one of its home console ports to revisit its gameplay and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

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. Many of the games here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. But playing against the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a reminder of how crude and unbalanced the development approached in the franchise's pioneering releases. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — online play is available in numerous anthology releases, but too light on features — the experience will be incomplete.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I detected a handful slight anomalies — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, especially with Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are largely presented as-is, the development team has included some smart user experience improvements and visual presentation options. For instance, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques during gameplay and opt to have infinite time to perform a Fatality. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Artistically, the releases can be played with a variety of visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the cathode-ray tube displays of arcades 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 encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title accurately and softly reflecting against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the documentary and emulated arcade classics, containing a soundtrack mode that lets you revisit the music from multiple combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. There are also character profiles that contain backgrounds and numerous narrative components displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the chance to experience a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This version of the game, a slightly updated version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an initial venture by the company at one-on-one internet-based play in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but provided the ability to compete against internet adversaries and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. Yet this online edition didn't find widespread adoption, in part