Mortal Kombat 4 is a game that changed how Mortal Kombat played. After the defeat of Shao Kahn, the fallen Elder God Shinnok escapes from his imprisonment in the Netherrealm with the aid of the sorcerror Quan Chi, and now aims to gain revenge against them, and even revenge against Raiden, the one who defeated him. Now, Earth's warriors must face Shinnok and his warriors in Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat 4 stops using the digitized actors of the last three games and switches to 3D graphics and character models. Despite this, the gameplay is still restricted to a 2D plane, however, the game adds the ability to sidestep, which is useful for dodging a projectile and, if you are quick, counterattack with a combo. Also new is the ability to use weapons, as each fighter has a weapon that he or she can pull out and use with a specific button combination. Weapons can do much damage, however, in this game, they can be knocked out the fighter's hands, which then can be picked up and used by the opposition.
For the roster, fifteen characters are there to choose from, from returning fighters like Scorpion, Raiden, and. Johnny Cage, as well as new fighters like Tanya, a Edenian who betrays her realm so Shinnok takes over, and Kai, a fellow Shaolin monk. While the roster is a good mix, sadly, some of the new characters are unoriginal (Jarek, who is said to be the last member of the Black Dragon, is unoriginal, as most of his moves are taken from Kano, even to the point where one of his Fatalities is having an eye laser, which is baffling as he has no cybernetics, and Reiko is basically made from a model planned for Noob Saibot due to issues and complaints about Mortal Kombat having too many ninjas, in which Noob was put into the game).
As for finishing moves, Mortal Kombat 4 takes the series back to its violent roots, as Babalities and Friendships were removed, and Animalities were removed due to how impossible it was to do transformations in 3D (although Liu Kang still has his Dragon Morph Fatality and Scorpion can become a giant scorpion as one of his Fatalities). So each character has four Fatalities: two unique Fatalities, and two Stage Fatalities (one for The Prison, and the other for Goro's Lair).
Okay, now that I explained this, I have to say this is good, but it still has some flaws. The fact that they made the final boss a playable character is sad (as he was the only boss in the arcade port, with home ports adding Goro in as a sub-boss), and along with the new characters being copycats of past characters, the gameplay is the same despite the addition of weapons, and the endings are infamous for being hilariously bad.
