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The Mortal Kombat series retains its share of secrets and the power to astonish, over three decades after its first appearance in arcades. This latest compilation including the series' initial period, comprising four original arcade titles, multiple console adaptations, and derivative games, is more than only a accurately simulated series of classics including less celebrated releases — it functions as a detailed chronicle about the creation of the renowned brand.

As a dedicated Mortal Kombat fan who has closely monitored its development and progression, there was numerous fresh aspects for me to discover and admire about the series.

What Constitutes the Historical Compilation

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is, like previous classic compilations from developer Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. 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. The collection even includes the series' ventures at spinoffs, 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 Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and series co-creators the creative duo behind the series were determining how to make a fighting game, produced using film material of live performers, through experimentation. Viewing the historical footage — containing vintage recordings, new interviews, and scans of old flyers, graphic novels, and including internal communications — it's remarkable to see how the series transformed from humble beginnings to a global sensation. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of early video game creators, developing without clear direction or oversight, channel their pop-culture interests into creating a legendary video game series.

Historical Section

The educational segment of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the developers' professional journeys at the currently closed Midway. It then goes on to show how the very same individuals contended with how to routinely one-up themselves, encountering significant pressure to repeat their success. It serves as a compelling period piece made from video recordings and traditional photos and manual drawings, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of Mortal Kombat's development and how personal recommendations helped circulate its mysteries and secrets of MK in its golden era in coin-op establishments. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's thoroughly enjoyable collection of mini-documentaries 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

Placed within the five-segment historical film's chronology 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 rediscover its combat system and visual presentation, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I allocated the majority of my time playing the arcade classics, especially Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, especially in one-on-one local play. However, facing the artificial intelligence fighters in these releases is a testament to how primitive and unbalanced the coding existed in the series' initial installments. AI-managed characters blatantly cheat to win or are alternatively incredibly stupid. If you don't have a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in numerous anthology releases, but rather basic in functionality — you'll miss the full enjoyment.

Technical Presentation

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the anthology, a blend of arcade, console, and handheld games, are precisely simulated, though I detected a few small quirks — mostly input lag and sporadic glitches, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. Although the titles are largely presented as-is, developer Digital Eclipse has included some smart user experience improvements and display customization choices. For instance, players have the option to display fighter-specific techniques on the display and select to activate endless periods to perform a Fatality. Additionally available are settings for revealing concealed combatants, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to unlock them.

Graphically, the titles can be played with a variety of filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic filters that mimic the cathode-ray tube displays of coin-op establishments or home televisions, or the monochrome green display of a Nintendo handheld. A notably appreciated element is the option to have arcade-like bezels encircling the display, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the simulated dark plastic edges. It's quite aesthetically pleasing.

Bonus Elements

There are plenty of welcome features besides the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple fighting releases absent the noise of combatants violently defeating each other. Additionally included are character profiles that contain backgrounds and multiple story elements displayed via the demo sequences of coin-op titles and final sequences.

Lost Media Recovery

One of the biggest highlights for dedicated series enthusiasts is the opportunity to play a example of historically missing material in the format 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 arcades. This network version of the game is almost exactly the same to UMK3, but included the option to challenge online opponents and included some minor bug fixes and balance. But the Wavenet update didn't find widespread adoption, in part