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This iconic fighting game still possesses numerous undisclosed elements and the ability to amaze, more than 30 years after its first appearance in gaming halls. The recent anthology spanning the franchise's earliest days, featuring a quartet of arcade releases, various home ports, and derivative games, is more than just a well-emulated collection of iconic titles including less celebrated releases — it additionally serves as a detailed chronicle 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 similar to previous classic compilations from the development team Digital Eclipse, part documentary, portion interactive museum. The collection includes simulated releases 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 brand's experiments at spinoffs, like action-oriented titles Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces — among the series' least successful installments.

The Legacy Kollection consequently doesn't represent a “best of” collection, but an exploration into Mortal Kombat's early days, when the creators at Midway and franchise originators Ed Boon and John Tobias were determining how to develop a battle series, produced using film material of real actors, as they went along. Watching the documentary — that features vintage recordings, new interviews, and digital copies of vintage posters, illustrated stories, and including internal communications — it's incredible to witness how the franchise evolved from simple starts to a worldwide phenomenon. It's genuinely amazing to watch a handful of young game developers, operating with virtually no plan or oversight, direct their entertainment passions into birthing an iconic game franchise.

Documentary Portion

The historical documentation of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection traces the growth of the fighting series and the founders' vocational paths at the now-defunct Midway. It subsequently demonstrates how those same creators reckoned with how to regularly outdo their previous work, encountering significant demand to replicate their achievements. It serves as a compelling period piece constructed using video recordings and analog photographs and hand-drawn illustrations, which demonstrate the hands-on approach of the franchise's production method and how oral tradition helped spread its rumors and secrets of MK in its arcade heyday. Delivered in easily digestible portions, it's highly engaging set of brief historical films that includes titles, illustrated stories, cinematic adaptations and even the comical physical events. The compilation also contains some never-implemented techniques and digital fighter representations among its cutting-room-floor content.

Interactive Gaming

Distributed throughout the quintet of documentary episodes' progression are invitations to experience the games themselves. During specific moments, viewers can hop into a game of Mortal Kombat or a home system version to reexperience its mechanics and graphics, emulated nearly perfectly on modern hardware.

I dedicated most of my time engaging with the vintage coin-op games, particularly Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Numerous titles here remain enjoyable, particularly during direct competitive sessions. However, facing the aforementioned game's AI-controlled opponents is a testament to how primitive and unjust the development approached in early Mortal Kombat games. CPU-controlled opponents obviously use unfair advantages or are alternatively incredibly stupid. Lacking a human opponent — internet multiplayer exists in the majority of included games, but somewhat limited in options — you'll be missing out.

Visual Options

The 23 playable Mortal Kombat games in the collection, a combination of coin-op, home system, and portable titles, are faithfully recreated, though I have noticed a handful slight anomalies — mainly control latency and the occasional bug, notably within Mortal Kombat 4. And while the games are largely presented as-is, the development team has incorporated various clever quality-of-life features and display customization choices. For example, players have the option to reveal combatant-unique actions on-screen and opt to have endless periods to perform a Fatality. Also included are choices for unlocking secret characters, removing the requirement to complete some esoteric trick to access them.

Artistically, the releases can be experienced with numerous filters and visual treatments. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection offers very realistic options that simulate the CRT monitors of arcades or home televisions, or the greenscale screen of a Nintendo handheld. A particularly nice touch is the choice to enable arcade-like bezels framing the gameplay, with the MK game of your choice precisely and gently mirroring against the faux black plastic borders. It's very artistically charming.

Extra Content

The collection includes numerous appreciated elements beyond the educational material and simulated classic games, featuring an audio component that lets you revisit the music from multiple Mortal Kombat games absent the noise of fighters brutally eliminating opponents. Additionally included are fighter biographies that feature histories and multiple story elements presented by arcade games' attract mode screens and conclusions.

Archival Discovery

A particularly notable inclusion for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans is the chance to experience a piece of "lost media" in the form of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wavenet Edition. This specific release, a moderately improved edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, was an early attempt by Midway 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 battle network competitors and included some minor error corrections and adjustments. However, this network version failed to achieve popularity, in part