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This iconic fighting game retains numerous undisclosed elements and the capacity to surprise, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in gaming halls. A new collection covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, multiple console adaptations, and related titles, transcends only a accurately simulated set of legendary games including less celebrated releases — it's also a comprehensive historical account about the development of the iconic franchise.

Even as a lifelong devotee of the franchise who has closely monitored its creation and evolution, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Legacy Collection

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The collection includes 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. The collection even includes the series' ventures at derivative games, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — some of the brand's worst entries.

The Legacy Kollection thus isn't a highlight reel anthology, but an exploration into the franchise's initial era, when developer Midway and franchise originators the creative duo behind the series were discovering methods to create a combat title, created from video recordings of live performers, through experimentation. Observing the archival material — containing archival footage, contemporary discussions, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from modest origins to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to observe several early video game creators, working with minimal planning or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into establishing an enduring gaming brand.

Educational Component

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the combat franchise and the developers' professional journeys at the no-longer-operating Midway. It further illustrates how those same creators addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, experiencing considerable pressure to repeat their triumphs. It's a fascinating time capsule composed of analog films and traditional photos and pencil sketches, which reveal the self-made character of the series' creation process and how word of mouth helped spread its rumors and undisclosed elements of the series 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 including the humorous real-world tour. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Distributed throughout the five-segment historical film's chronology are prompts to play the actual titles. At various points, users can directly access a combat game session or a home system version to revisit its gameplay and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, specifically Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Many of the games here stand the test of time, particularly during one-on-one local play. However, facing the computer-controlled adversaries in these titles is a demonstration of how basic and unbalanced the programming was in early Mortal Kombat games. Computer-directed fighters blatantly cheat to win or are otherwise dumb as rocks. If you don't have a human opponent — online play is available in most titles in the collection, but too light on features — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The two dozen available combat games in the compilation, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I've observed a couple minor issues — primarily delayed responses and the occasional bug, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. Even though the releases are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and display customization choices. For example, you can choose to show each character's special moves during gameplay and choose to enable endless periods to perform a Fatality. There are also options for revealing concealed combatants, eliminating the need to execute obscure techniques to unlock them.

Visually, the games can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic effects that reproduce the CRT monitors of coin-op establishments or household displays, or the greenscale screen of a portable gaming device. An especially welcome feature is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the specific combat game you're playing precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's very artistically charming.

Bonus Elements

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the historical footage and recreated vintage titles, including a music player that lets you revisit the tunes of various combat titles without the din of two kombatants viciously slaughtering each other. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements presented by the idle displays of gaming hall releases and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

A particularly notable inclusion for committed franchise followers is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material 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 initial venture by the company at direct online competitive gaming in gaming halls. The online-enabled release of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to battle network competitors and contained several small glitch repairs and refinements. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part