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Mortal Kombat continues to hold many hidden mysteries and the ability to amaze, well past its 30th anniversary after its original launch in arcades. This latest compilation covering the franchise's earliest days, comprising a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and related titles, transcends simply a faithfully reproduced set of legendary games along with lesser-known entries — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the creation of the renowned brand.

Being a long-time devotee of the franchise who has carefully followed its creation and evolution, there was much to discover for me to learn and appreciate about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection similar to other vintage game anthologies from the creators at Digital Eclipse, part documentary, 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 some of those games. This compilation also features the series' ventures at derivative games, like action games Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — two of the franchise's least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection is therefore not a greatest hits compilation, but an examination of Mortal Kombat's early days, when the development team Midway and brand founders the creative duo behind the series were figuring out how to create a combat title, produced using film material of actual people, as they went along. Watching the documentary — which includes vintage recordings, new interviews, and reproductions of classic advertisements, comics, and even interoffice faxes — it's incredible to witness how the series transformed from simple starts to a international craze. It's truly remarkable to see a group of pioneering developers, developing without clear direction or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Educational Component

The documentary portion of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection charts the rise of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the currently closed Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how the very same individuals addressed how to routinely one-up themselves, facing no small amount of demand to replicate their achievements. It's a fascinating time capsule made from VHS tapes and traditional photos and manual drawings, which showcase the DIY nature of the series' creation process and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Presented in manageable segments, it's thoroughly enjoyable set of brief historical films that spans games, comics, films and including the humorous real-world tour. It also includes some unused moves and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Experience

Placed within the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are opportunities to engage with the original releases. At various points, users can directly access a combat game session or a console adaptation to rediscover its combat system and graphics, simulated with remarkable precision on contemporary systems.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Several releases here remain enjoyable, notably with direct competitive sessions. Yet competing with the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a demonstration of how basic and unfair the development approached in the series' initial installments. CPU-controlled opponents clearly employ dishonest tactics or are otherwise dumb as rocks. Lacking another person to compete with — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the compilation, a blend of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are accurately emulated, though I detected a few small quirks — primarily delayed responses and intermittent errors, particularly in Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are primarily displayed authentically, developer Digital Eclipse has added several intelligent convenience enhancements and visual presentation options. For example, you can choose to reveal combatant-unique actions on the display and opt to have unlimited duration to complete lethal techniques. There are also options for accessing hidden fighters, without having to perform some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles 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 arcades or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. An especially welcome feature is the option to have coin-op-inspired frames encircling the display, with your selected Mortal Kombat title faithfully and subtly duplicating against the faux black plastic borders. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous nice touches beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, including a music player that allows users to rediscover the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games excluding the sounds of combatants violently defeating each other. There are also fighter biographies that feature histories and numerous narrative components shown through arcade games' attract mode screens and final sequences.

Archival Discovery

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 pioneering effort from the developer at direct online competitive gaming in coin-op establishments. The online-enabled release of the game is virtually identical to UMK3, but featured the capability to compete against internet adversaries and featured various slight bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update failed to achieve popularity, in part