User Reviews

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.

Here is "Mortal Kombat 4," the first game in the legendary martial arts series about fighters competing in an otherworldly martial arts tournament in order to save the world to be in full 3D. That's right. Full, 3D arena combat, which is a formula that would carry on well into later games in the series. But somehow the formula doesn't work. Not sure, maybe it's the graphics or flawed combo system. Or it could be the fact that it came out in 1997, the same year as the horrendous "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation." The late 1990s were not very friendly to "Mortal Kombat," even though the first "Mortal Kombat" movie in 1995 rocked, and to this day probably remains the greatest video game-to-movie translation yet. I don't know. But it's still a great opportunity to battle friends to the death in gruesome martial arts combat.

7/10

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.

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.

This game is definitely an improvement of MK Trilogies. The new fatalities are great. Except they should have kept animalities, those were cool. Thank god they got rid of brutalities though, those sucked, and so did the comedy in the last game. And it's too bad that some of the warriors are gone. Like a lot of the ninjas and female fighters, the were very much needed. But the new 3-d stages are great.

Mortal Kombat and its sequels are some of the greatest games ever created! It has a good story, incredible action, great music, awesome characters, very fun, really interesting looking stages, and more! Below is an In-depth review of the game called Mortal Kombat 4!

Story: Many fighters around the world enter this deadly tournament. Since now the contest is in Shinnok's hands it will become much more difficult for the Kombatants to win!

Fujin - Is he the God of wind? Can Raiden trust him? With the dark powers of Shinnok and Quan Chi he has no other but to trust him!

Jarek - Is he the very last member of the Black Dragon? Whether he is or not he is a great fighter!

Jax - U.S. Special Forces Major Jackson Briggs enters the tournament with his huge bionic arms!

Johnny Cage - Johnny Cage - An action movie star, Cage enters Mortal Kombat!

Kai - He joins Lui Kang and Raiden in this unbelievable fight against Quan Chi and Shinnok!

Lui Kang - This Chinese warrior is a fearless fighter who is bent on getting revenge!

Quan Chi - The pale face sorcerer is the one who freed the abandoned God Shinnok. Now there will be total abomination!

Raiden - Is it true Lord Raiden is the God of thunder?

Reiko - This fighter was once a powerful leader in Shinnok's grand army.

Reptile - Reptile - Not much is known about this fighter except he wears the same exact ninja uniforms as Scorpion and Sub Zero but only green and can mimic other fighters maneuvers! Though it is thought that he is the last of an ancient reptilian humanoid specie. Since Shang Tsung and Shao Khan are both defeated he join Shinnok's legions!

Scorpion - A poor soul, when he was a live his wife and child were murdered by Sub Zero and the Lin Kuei clan of ninjas. Scorpion with his trusty spear is seeking revenge on the cold one.

Shinnok - He took over the realm of Edenia, betrayed the Gods, joined forces with Quan Chi, and now he enters Mortal Kombat to rule all realms!

Sonya Blade - A beautiful Texan who is a Lt. in the United States Army. The skilled fighter enters the tournament after defeating Kano. Now she must fight a new enemy which not the last member of Kano's gang The Black Dragon Jarek but a much more dangerous fighter in Quan Chi!

Sub Zero - The younger brother of the murderer of Scorpion's family is in the tournament. Now it will be a big showdown like never seen before!

Tanya - The beautiful daughter of Edenia's ambassador. She enters the Tournament!

Noob Saibot - A deadly shadow ninja!

Meat - Who is Meat? What is Meat? Is he a fighter? If so what is he doing in Mortal Kombat?

Goro - A huge half-human dragon from Kuatan, the 4th Astrial Plane of Shokan in the Realm of Outworld. This giant has been undefeated for half of a millennium. He defeated Liu Kang's ancestor the Shaolin Monk Kung Lao. Now the tournament begins!

Game Play: The game play is very good. The basic movies are easy to perform but the fatalities are very hard to do but with the help of cheats it can be much easier.

Graphics: The graphics are wonderful. Most of the game is digitalized!

Difficulty: The game can be very easy or it can be very hard depending on what you set the difficulty level.

Music: The music is great! Just awesome catchy tunes through out the game! In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!

Sound: The sound is great. The real voices sound clear and the punching and kicking does as well.

Overall: I have always loved Mortal Kombat. If you like excellent fighting games then I strongly recommend you play Mortal Kombat 4 today!

To purchase this video game on many game formats check out Amazon.com!

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.

"Mortal Kombat 4" takes the series into the world of 3d-fighters, and is it able to kick its opponents? Not a chance. The world of 3d-fighters is dominated by series such as "Tekken" and "Virtua Fighter", and the latest MK-game isn`t up to scratch. The 3d visuals found here are rough, but the pace of the game is therefore very fast, but it is packed with a cartoony feeling and badly balanced gameplay. I hoped that this series could`ve died after the superb "Mortal Kombat Trilogy", but I was wrong. Don`t buy these games anymore, and perhaps the developers will stop making them. Stick to "Mortal Kombat Trilogy".

5,5/10

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.

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!

***