Mortal Kombat 4

I have been the biggest Mortal Kombat fan since the beginning and I was hoping that this would do for 3D fighters graphicswise what Mortal Kombat II did for 2D games back in the day meaning. This would look like real actors, in 3D making all others look cartooney. But that's not the case. Ever since Mortal Kombat 3 things had got progressively cartoony, both MK3 and T (which are essentially the same) had got cheesy-wwf-marvel comics like and while it was starting to get better here it underwhelmed me when I saw it at the arcade.

Gameplay wise it is not an improvement instead of trying to fix what they already had they stripped almost everything out. The weapons where kind of neat but they could easily be knocked out of your hands and they didn't significantly add to the gameplay. Then to compound all of this they took the decent looking 3,000 polygon models from the arcade and reduced them to about 600 polygons for the N64\PSX\PC versions and the didn't even have to lower it for the PC but they just wanted to do a quick port make once, run everywhere. They corrected this graphicswise with the dreamcast version later, MK Gold but it was too little, too late.

But that doesn't say much since Midway's "true 3D fighting game" royally sucked. MK4 brought back a handful of MK veterans, and the new characters for the most part are forgettable. Jarek? Reiko? Tanya? Who cares about these guys? Shinnok does nothing as the last boss of the game; his henchman Quan Chi steals the show from him half the time, and is far more intimidating.

Mortal Kombat in 3D plays very much like previous entries into the Mortal Kombat world instead of truly taking advantage of the extra dimension . . . and somehow it doesn't play or feel quite right. It feels more like a clone of Mortal Kombat desperately trying to be Mortal Kombat.

Gone is the plethora of finishing moves--both good and bad since with UMK3 (MKTrilogy) the choice was overwhelming. Did they really need 2 to 3 Fatalities, a Friendship, Babality, Brutality, Animality, and the Mercy? No. So, yeah, it's nice to go back to just the Fatalities and drop the rest.

The animated 3D endings were nice, it's just a shame the motions were generic. It would've been really nice to get Tekken-ish or even Soul Blade style endings where you actually get a different ending depending on if you hit a button sequence at a key place. But oh well, these were the most fun endings of any MK game. Way better than the still shots and text.

I was interested to see what Midway could do with the series with it's venture into complete 3D. I had immensely enjoyed the past 3 games. When I finally got to play Mortal Kombat 4. I felt indifferent about it at first. The full 3D aspect was different. The graphics weren't all they could be for a PS1 game in my opinion.

The new character additions were average to bad. Some old characters look alright for their first time in 3D. Some of the fatalities are redone for the full 3D world. Which is cool. There are also stage fatalities in this game. Which hasn't been seen since MK2 by this time. They are done nicely. Babalities, Animalities, Brutalities, and Frienships are all taken away in this game.

Mortal Kombat 4 also introduced weapons. I was never a big fan of weapons in Mortal Kombat 4. As they are a optional in the game. Which eventually leads to them being a throw away in my opinion. The best action is with the characters moves and hand to hand combat.

My biggest complaints about this game is the end boss Shinnok. First off he has one of the most annoying voices in the game. He's very easy to face and his fatalities are a bit plain maybe even comical. He's one of the worst bosses of the MK series.

Voice acting has never been MK's strong point, but the ending FMV's are marred by bad voice acting. Choppy and sometimes stiff looking movements. I can see why they did and eventually stuck with the still picture endings. All in all it's a decent MK game. Can't really call it bad, but it could've been a lot better.

This game is pretty fun-- but like the rest of the Mortal Kombat games, it lacks in gameplay. But the gameplay is much better than the other Mortal Kombat games. This game is still good, but lose the bad gameplay. UGH!

***

I'm glad the Mortal Kombat series took a chance in the 3-D world. "Tekken" and "Street Fighter Alpha" ruled the fighting video games world at the time so it was about time for Mortal Kombat to appear into scene.

The result was excellent. It's one of the most beautiful yet dark fighting games ever created. It continued with the addictive kombo system of part III plus it had spectacular, dark graphics, an amazing sound mixed with creepy sounds and haunting tunes (like when Sub-Zero performs his classic fatality).

Only the most important characters survived MK III. But the new additions are excellent. Specially Quan Chi and Shinnok.

This is overall a fantastic video game that should please fans of the MK series. Expect a whole creepy atmosphere in 3D.

I don't know why fans didn't like it. It's fun, has a great plot, amazing graphics, and the violence factor won't let you down.

A new classic.