Mortal Kombat 4
Reviewed by Shinnokxz
Mortal Kombat 4 was originaly released in the arcade, along
with it's other laughable game, Mortal Kombat Mytholigies:
Sub-Zero. Once MK4 was on home consoles, it had mixed
feelings with all verisons. the PC version had to much flaws
they had to discontinue productuon for it. The N64 had
better grapics of the bunch, but it had mediocre controls
and sluggish gameplay. The Gameboy version, well I don't
even want to talk about. The Playstation version, well if
you ask me, was the best of all versions. Though it didn't
have as good of graphics like in the N64, it still had solid
controls, pacey gamplay. And, of course FMV's, which really
doesn't matter.
The Games Good Points...
Besides the Arcade counter-part, this verison is the best at
of all of them. The graphics in this aren't that good, but
the new FMV's certainly benefit from the good points. The
sound and music, at of all MK game for a CD usong system, is
probably one of the best points going across this. The
gameplay has miner bugs and slow-downs, but it has no
cheapness in it like some of the other Mortal Kombats. The
control, is at-most excellent. Miles better than the N64
version, and even as good as the arcade version (with the
analog compatibility, plus the dual shock). The variety of
characters are also something to brag about also, actualy in
this one, the designer team actualy decided to put Storys
behind the characters. Not just throw a bunch of guys in and
call it gameplay (like MK Trilogy). Another new thing to
this Mortal Kombat game is that you can now pull out
weapons, some people hate these for the exact two
reasons... 1 is that it takes alot of time to pull out, so
some times you have to take a huge combo put against you
instead. Number 2 is just because they are to slow to
recover. These things are true, but it you DO get a nice
powerful weapon in your possesion, you can cut the opponent
to smither-eens in a matter of 5 swipes. You can also use
weapons to participate in huge lengthy and health killing
combo's.
The Games Bad Points...
Let's start out with the graphics. They are very choppy and
gritty. The chacacters FMV's look nice, but the character
models (while fighting) look terrible... I don't even have to
compare the N64's version to these graphics. The backgrounds
also looked way rushed, and have too many missing fames to
count (eg. When they do a face shot with a character on the
ground, and under him the floor dissapears, so it's plain
darkness). Although the backgrounds are very creative, with
the plus side of a couple of famous ones coming back, they
look terrible and it gets really annoying during gameplay.
This game also suffers from a decease us gamers like to call
'cra*titis', which is basically really glitchy bugs.
Although it doesn't have as much bugs as Mortal Kombat Gold
had, it still gets in the way during fighting and other
important parts of gameplay. Such as, if you win the game
with Noob Saibot (originally tooken out in the Arcade
version, and put into the home versions as the secret
charcter) and you finish the last charcacter with a fatality
(the human one, not Goro, or Shinnok) then it will play a
random movie from any of the characters. OK, that one didn't
really bother with gameplay, but her's one that did... when
you fight reptile, you go upp against Goro, and constantly
keep doing acid spray and crawl (this makes the game go
hella fast) then, if your lucky, the game will zoom out of
proportion and lock up :). I don't want to go on about the
games bugs, but if you want to see for yourself, rent it.
Game Modes:
Arcade Mode:
Arcade mode as, well.... Arcade Mode. All it is is practicaly
One or Two player Gameplay. You Either do a versus battle,
or go solo, than, as usual, you pick your destiny (either
Beginner, Intermediate, Mediate, and Master). You iht your
way up to the boss Shinnok, and try to win the game. Just
like any Mortal Kombat Game.
Two On Two
This is a pretty fun game mode. You and your friend pick 2
guys (I always pick Shinnok and Scorpion, because well, I
know pretty much everything with them). Then, you when
you start battling, and then one of you lose a guy, the
person you just lost with, explodes! And the other guy pops
out and is rearin' to go. Then when one of you lose both of
your guys, the game is over and the other person wins. After
that it just takes you to the main screen.
Tournament Mode
This one one of the best modes. You or your friend (or the
computer) pick either 4 or 8 guys to battle with. Then you
pick your four (or two) guys to be automaticaly be paired by
the computer. Then you battle One Round battles until you
have pretty much won the tournament. After that, ou get to
see the character you won with, in a 1's t place space,
holding a trophy, and a decapitated head.
Practice Mode
In this brand new mode (Only seen in MK4 and MKG so far),
you can choose a fighter and another fighter to fight
against. Then you have numerous ammount of options to do
while your battling... eg. Make your opponent your fighting
active, The stage you can fight on, any character (Except
Noob and Goro), and any weapons. This mode is really nice if
you want to learn and memorize hard to do combo's that you
pretty much can't do in normal gameplay.
Graphics: 5/10
If there was one thing to hate about the game, the graphics
would be it. The characters are very choppy. Sub-Zero and
Scorpion both look bad (expecialy when they do they're
winning stances, ack) And all the rest of the charcters are
pretty much the same too. The backgrounds also look
terrible. With they're missing frames, and choppy and gritty
looks. This games chracter models, and graphics don't mesh
well together. Sometimes, when you do a RoundHouse Kick as a
killing move (to end a round) the character spins and lands
on him back... about 1 foot up in the air. It's totaly
noticable too. Or when they have that bloody head after a
fatality (either Reptiles Face-Eat fatality, or Meat's Head)
and they do a close-up of it on the ground, the ground
dissapears beneath it (or the head dissapears). These
graphics are really nothing to write home about. The N64's
verison's graphics were much better than this.
Sound/Music: 8/10
Sound Effects: 7/10
The sound effects in this game are alright atmost. But
sometimes the sound completely shuts out, and you can't hear
anything. But other than that the sounds alright. All the
usuall Kombat themes and effects are back... especialy the
famous 'Get Over Here'. The voice acting is pretty cheap
too. Almost all the non-human charcters sound the same (Dark
raspy voice) Like Shinnok, Quan-Chi, Raiden, and Fujin, even
Kai sounds like that. The punch and kick sounds sound ok,
but they blank out sometimes. The screams are better than
ever, but the most annoying one is Sonya's scream... she
sounds like a chicken dying.
Music: 8/10
Nice. Better than the N64 version, I can tell you that. Dark
and more gloomier music is in MK4. Here, you will find new
themes, and not stupid returning mixes. Neat little music is
in the Forest stage, Reptilian stage, and Hell stage.
Sometimes the music stops for reasons un-known, and when
you're fighting in practice mose or anything like that sort,
then the music 'loops' back to the beginning when you have
played longer than the sond has. Doing this there is a pause
in the music and the game. But really no bad flaws here. I
hope the music reyirn in Mortal Kombat 5.
Gameplay: 8/10
If there is a better story in MK game history, than I
haven't heard of it. This is probably one of the most
promising and best stories this franchise has seen. An Elder
named Shinnok was banishe to the neatherrealm for crimes
against humnity (He helped Shoa Khan take over the world in
MK3-MKT, as seen in MK:A, heis also Raiden's and Shao Khans
Dad). The only way to free Shinnok was to take the Secret
Amulet from a Lin Kuei headquarters high in the Alps
moutains. A roaming sorvere by the name of Quan-Chi ordered
a ninja named Sub-Zero VII to steal the sacred amulet from
the headquarters. Doing this will help Shinnok gain his
freedom. But Sub-Zero VII did not know this. So Shinnok is
back to take over the out world and the Earth for revenge on
Raiden. Most of the fighters are Earths warriors to gaurn
the realm of Earth (Liu-Kang, Kai, Sonya, Jax, Jared (yes
Jared), Cage (Which died, and comes back as a spectre),
Fujin, Raiden, and even are two buddies. Scorpion and
Sub-zero VII. There are bad guys helping Shinnok for they're
own resons, Reptile, Quan-Chi, Reiko, Goro, Noob Saibot, and
some others. The first thin you mgith want to do when you
turn on the game is to move the options ato your likings.
Then, you go to the character select screen. Every new-comer
always picks scorpion, but, the REAL best is Shinnok
hehehehe. The first thing you notice while coming into
battle, is the loading times,but they're not that bad
actualy, but be prepared to wait about 5 seconds in between
each fight and rounds, and about 8 seconds on FMV's . But the
nice thing is that when you morph Shinnok, there is NO
laoding times, thats a nice improvements, expecialy when
Shang Tsung in MK3 had about 8 seconds to load in between
morphs. Once you get the loading and moves memorized, then
you start to have Two player battles. which are pretty fun.
Another great option is the 'Kombat Theatre'. In this, you
try to gain every one of the characters movies/endings. This
is a fun repalibility factor also. The controls are way
better than the N64 version, You have the teo puch buttons
as X and SQUARE, and the two kick buttons as CIRCLE and
TRIANGLE. The Run and block buttons are R1 and L1. And the
side step buttons are R2 and L2. Simple controls and easy to
memorize.
Final Word...
This is an excellent game to any MK lover's library. If
you've heard of MK and you want to play it, than this is a
good sequeal to start off with. With your ammount of bugs,
and some bad gtaphics are really the only bad parts about
this game. Overall, an excellent under-rated fighter.
Overall: 7 out of 10
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