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Mortal Kombat retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, more than 30 years after its original launch in arcades. A new collection spanning the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and spinoffs, is more than only a accurately simulated collection of iconic titles and not-so-classics — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the making of the legendary series.

Being a long-time Mortal Kombat fan who has paid close attention its origins and transformation, there was plenty new for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Makes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection comparable to other retro collections from the creators at Digital Eclipse, portion educational film, part playable archive. The anthology contains simulated releases of the first arcade Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat 4, including television and mobile versions of certain releases. The anthology additionally contains the franchise's attempts at derivative games, like combat-focused releases 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 examination of the series' formative period, when developer Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, digitized from footage of actual people, as they went along. Watching the documentary — containing historical videos, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, graphic novels, and even interoffice faxes — it's remarkable to see how Mortal Kombat went from modest origins to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to watch a handful of pioneering developers, operating with virtually no plan or guidance, focus their cultural enthusiasms into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection documents the ascent of the combat franchise and its creators' careers at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals reckoned with how to consistently surpass their achievements, facing no small amount of stress to duplicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule constructed using video recordings and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how word of mouth helped circulate its mysteries and hidden aspects of Mortal Kombat in its peak period in gaming halls. Told in bite-sized chunks, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its previously unreleased material.

Interactive Experience

Interspersed along the five-segment historical film's chronology are opportunities to engage with the actual titles. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a combat game session or a home system version to rediscover its combat system and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on modern hardware.

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 hold up, especially in one-on-one local play. But playing against the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the development approached in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Without having someone to play against — network gaming is included in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll be missing out.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I detected a few small quirks — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and graphical adjustment settings. For instance, users can elect to display fighter-specific techniques on-screen and select to activate infinite time to execute finishing moves. There are also options for unlocking secret characters, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be enjoyed with multiple visual enhancements and presentation styles. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes remarkably accurate options that simulate the traditional television screens of gaming halls or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the artificial ebony plastic frames. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, containing a soundtrack mode that allows users to rediscover the soundtracks of different combat titles excluding the sounds of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and conclusions.

Historical Preservation

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the ability to access a example of historically missing material in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This particular edition, a somewhat revised iteration of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an pioneering effort from the developer at one-on-one internet-based play in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to battle network competitors and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part