Mortal Kombat 4

Mortal Kombat 4 (MK4) is the fourth main installment in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games developed by Midway Games. Released to arcades in 1997, Mortal Kombat 4 is the first title from the series, and one of the first made by Midway overall, to use 3D computer graphics. It is also the last game of the series to have an arcade release. Eurocom (who had previously developed the Sega Saturn version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) later ported it to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC, and Game Boy Color during 1998. An updated version titled Mortal Kombat Gold was released exclusively for the Dreamcast the following year.

The gameplay system in Mortal Kombat 4 is similar to that of the previous games; one of the most notable additions is the use of weapons and objects during fights. The storyline chronicles the attack from the corrupted Elder God Shinnok against his former comrades who trapped him in the Netherealm many years prior to the beginning of the series. The other 17 playable characters take part in the battle between good and evil, with the forces of light trying to stop Shinnok and the forces of darkness from conquering all the realms.

While developing the game, the Midway staff had problems making the graphics as it was one of the first 3D fighting games they developed. Co-creator Ed Boon commented that the staff wanted to make Mortal Kombat 4 more violent than its predecessors, removing the comical finishing moves featured in them. Since its release, the game received generally positive response from critics, with the exception of the Game Boy Color port.

Gameplay
Mortal Kombat 4 is played in a similar way to the previous titles from the series with some changes. MK4 introduces a limited weapon system, allowing each character to take out a special weapon using a set button combination. Once equipped, the weapons are primarily used through the punch buttons. This includes swinging, clubbing or even tossing the weapons. The weapons can also be purposely dropped, in similar fashion to the arena objects such as severed heads and rocks; if an opponent's weapon is dropped, the other character is able to pick it up and use it.

MK4 added a "Maximum Damage" cap to the game's combo system, automatically breaking combos if they deal over a set amount of damage to a player and, thus, preventing infinite combos (although this cap can be removed with a code). Unlike Mortal Kombat Trilogy which contained multiple finishing moves of various kinds, Mortal Kombat 4 only has two Fatalities per character, and two Stage Fatalities that can only be done in certain arenas and involve the winning character throwing their opponent into part of the arena where they are killed. Unlike the first three games, this game does not include non-playable boss characters, except for Goro in the home versions.

Plot
Thousands of years before the setting of the first game, Shinnok, one of the Elder Gods who control the six realms in the Mortal Kombat universe, attempted to become the conqueror of them all. Thunder god Raiden fought and defeated Shinnok in a war that spanned hundreds of years, sending him to the Netherrealm, where he would be trapped forever. Now, Shinnok has managed to escape from the Netherealm with help from the sorcerer Quan Chi, and seeks vengeance against the Elder Gods who banished him. In his plan, he first conquers the realm of Edenia, with the aid of a traitor, Tanya, while he prepares to attack the Elder Gods. In order to stop Shinnok's menace, Raiden requests help from the Earthrealm warriors who saved the realms from Emperor Shao Kahn in previous titles.

New Characters

 * Fujin
 * Jarek
 * Kai
 * Reiko
 * Quan Chi
 * Shinnok
 * Tanya
 * Meat

Returning Characters

 * Goro
 * Jax Briggs
 * Johnny Cage
 * Liu Kang
 * Noob Saibot
 * Raiden
 * Reptile
 * Scorpion
 * Sonya Blade
 * Sub-Zero

Arenas

 * Elder Gods' Arena
 * Goro's Lair - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he/she can be uppercutted into the spikes on the ceiling. In the Home Version of the game, Goro is fought here.
 * Ice Pit
 * Living Forest
 * Reptile's Lair
 * Shaolin Temple
 * The Prison - When an opponent is defeated on this stage, he can be tossed into the large metal fan, which proceeded to chop them into bits.
 * The Tomb
 * Fire Well
 * Wind World

Development
Ed Boon, co-creator of the series, found it difficult to lead the development team for Mortal Kombat 4 due to how large the staff had become since the first Mortal Kombat title, with him as the only programmer. Therefore, Todd Allen and Mike Boon (Ed's younger brother) joined as programmers with Boon noting the staff was more than twice its original size.[1] The Midwaystaff wanted to remove the comical elements from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, so they focused on the making of the Fatalities.[2][3] On the other hand, the Animality finishing moves from Mortal Kombat 3 were removed since the transformation of a character into an animal was considered to be hard to make in 3D graphics. In order to make the Fatalities more entertaining, they decided to make some of the Fatalities replay from different camera angles. Since actors were no longer needed to make the characters' movements with the exception of adding some motion capture elements, the staff found it easier to make Fatalities, as it was all done by computer animation.[4] Some members of the development team had previously worked on War Gods, Midway's first 3D fighting game.[5] However, they abandoned the "digital skin" technique used in that game[further explanation needed], since the new Zeus hardware allowed them to create characters with enough polygons that digital skin would offer little benefit.[3]

The gameplay was planned to be similar to the predecessors although this would be the first game from the series to be made in 3D. As Ed Boon was skeptical about the quality of the result noting that the gameplay would be slower than previous titles, he decided to hand-animate frames with timings in a similar fashion to Street Fighter EX.[5] To advertise the game, Midway organized a 35-stop road tour of the United States. The version of the game shown in the tour had nine characters, and within these nine was Noob Saibot, who would become a hidden character in the console ports only.[2] Art director Tony Goskie created a 3D model used when any character in the game got skinned, which he called "Meat". It was later decided to make Meat a secret playable character.[6] Players first learned of the character's given name after the text "Meat lives!" was placed on Ed Boon's website promoting Mortal Kombat 4 's third arcade revision.[7] Years after the game's release, Ed Boon commented that he and the staff should not have made Shinnok the final boss from the game as previous titles used enormous characters as bosses.[8] The team opted to use an EPROM instead of a hard drive for the arcade hardware, due to the lower cost, and because it would allow the fast access time needed for familiar Mortal Kombat features such as changing backgrounds in mid-fight.[9]

Release
The arcade version of Mortal Kombat 4 was released on October 15, 1997 in North America and later that same year in Europe. The game was ported to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows. An upgraded version titled Mortal Kombat Gold was also released exclusively for the Dreamcast. A Game Boy Color game based on Mortal Kombat 4 was released as well.

Home consoles
Eurocom was in charge of making the console versions of the game and they worked for eight months to finish the Nintendo 64 port. One of their main objectives was to maintain 60 frames per second as they had never done that with a 3D fighting game. While all the traits from the arcade mode were added to the home version, Eurocom had to change the polygon count to "squeeze into the resources of the Nintendo 64". Eurocom was also assisted by Ed Boon and the lead artist on the arcade game, Dave Michicich. While the home versions were still in development, Ed Boon gave fans hints about things that would be in the ports of the game. These hints included Goro being a playable character and the extra costumes.[10] Also added to the port is the Ice Pit, a snowy environment where players fight in an icy, carved-out pit. Another new feature added to these ports is a second set of alternate outfits for all characters. The arcade version provided only one set of alternate outfits which the player could unlock. The PC and PlayStation versions run FMV intro, bios and endings, due to the CD-ROM media. The Nintendo 64 version, being a cartridge game, uses the in-game character animations to run them just like its arcade counterpart.[11] Notably, the two platforms that offer FMV endings, received a different ending for Reiko, in which he goes into a portal leading to Shao Kahn's throne room, sits on the throne and has Shao Kahn's helmet come down onto him. In the other platforms, the ending fades to black after Reiko enters the portal.

Mortal Kombat Gold
Main article: Mortal Kombat Gold

An expanded version titled Mortal Kombat Gold was developed by Eurocom and released in 1999 as a launch title for the Dreamcast in both regions, on September 9 on North America and on October 14 in Europe. The game contains several additional characters (Baraka, Cyrax, Kitana, Mileena, Kung Lao and hidden Sektor) and stages, as well as a new weapon select mechanism.

Game Boy Color
The Game Boy Color version of MK4 was developed by Digital Eclipse and released by Midway. It is in 2D instead of the others' 3D. It features nine selectable characters: Raiden, Quan Chi, Fujin, Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Reiko, Tanya, Scorpion, and the hidden character Reptile; Shinnok is still the final opponent. In addition, there are a few speech clips, and instead of using the in-game graphics for the Fatalities, the game uses short FMV clips.[12] The Game Boy Color port's 2D engine reuses the game engine used in the Game Boy port of MK3, including the same character select screen, "Choose Your Destiny" screen, and how the characters move and interact. The background music was replaced with repetitive songs that bore instrumentation befitting a Game Boy release, and the port does not contain any blood outside of the Fatality videos. The combo system and weapons were also removed. However, the graphics for the port were above average for a Game Boy fighting title, and it contains many of the arcade's backgrounds in vivid clarity.

Reception
In October 1998, Midway announced the home venues' revenues thanks to the release of various titles including Mortal Kombat 4.[31] Upon the start of the arcade's road tour, news programs commented on the violence from the game and expressed concern on how it would affect the players' personalities; Ed Boon replied that there were already games more violent than Mortal Kombat 4, which was only the most popular of the violent games and therefore the most prominent.[32]

Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "The game isn't a groundbreaker, but it plays roughly the same as previous entries, and at least the design is as solid as its polygons. It may not be what we'd hoped for, but it's much better than War Gods."[25]

GameRankings had an average of 76.07% from 20 reviews for the Nintendo 64 version of the game.[13] The PlayStation and PC ports received smaller averages with the PlayStation having 75.75% with 16 reviews,[14] and the PC 72.14% with 14 reviews.[15] Although various reviewers did not find it more entertaining than previous games, they still praised the gameplay. On the other hand, the gameplay was said to be very similar to the previous Mortal Kombat titles.[17] The PlayStation and PC ports have been said to have improvements over the arcade game as having more responsive controls and the exclusive FMV scenes.[19][23] However, IGN mentioned that playing the PC port would become "stale" unless the player "had an extra pad and a friend"[24] and the Official UK PlayStation Magazine said that the game was "the same old stuff trotted out with a fresh coat of pixels. Tedious."[29]

The Nintendo 64 port received positive response for being faithful to the arcade version, with GameSpot giving it a "Great" 8.9 and IGN a "Great" 8.8, though they noted that the graphics were not as good as those of the arcade.[18][20][22] The game has received positive response due to the new 3D graphics, the improvement of combos, and how all the characters "are still as cheesy as ever" and because they still have their original movements with a few updates.[22]

Next Generation reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Mortal Kombat 4 is a guilty pleasure; although it's unoriginal, the game is fast and rewarding. MK4 is an excellent port and, though it's average in general, it is still one of the best fighters for the console."[26]

Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "Overall, MK4 is by no means incompetent, and it's a fine port of the arcade game. Had it not been released on a system teeming with great fighting games, it might stand a chance, but on PlayStation, there's little to distinguish it."[27]

The Game Boy Color version received an average of only 46.00% with 3 reviews by GameRankings.[16] It received poor reviews from publications such as GameSpot whose editor Jeff Gerstmann gave it a 3.5 out of 10 due to how different the game is from the other ports and how unresponsive the controls are.[21]Similarly IGN's Peer Schneider criticized how limited the gameplay had become in this version and that defeating the opponent was relatively easier. He gave the game a "Poor" 4.0 out of 10.[12]

In retrospective, GamesRadar criticized the endings for the Nintendo 64 version of the game using a compilation from them for an April Fool joke, labelling them as hilarious due to their poor quality.[33][34] Mortal Kombat 4 was ranked as having third best Game Over screen of all time according to GamePro in 2009.[35]According a summary in to the series' retrospective by IGN, "With interest in ultraviolence waning, 3D becoming commonplace, and the photorealism now gone, Mortal Kombat 4 was unable to replicate the success of its predecessors."[5]

Trivia

 * MK4 was actually not the first game that was created by Midway with the new Zeus software. A fighting game titled War Gods was released several months before MK4's debut. Unfortunately, it bombed in arcades.
 * Reptile makes his first playable appearance in the series without his mask.
 * Kitana was originally planned to be in Mortal Kombat 4. However, due to there not being enough new characters in the game, her color palette was changed to brown to make Tanya. Her coding is still in the N64 version of the game, and she can be accessed with a GameShark. Her coding is also in the PC version, but it can be only accessed via a trainer. While Kitana's model and textures were deleted from the Playstation version, her moves were left in, and can be assigned to any character with a GameShark.
 * The game features the same style of versus screen from Mortal Kombat 3, using rendered images of characters before a fight. Unlike the previous game however, these renders do not change should the players have selected the same character. The player can also input Kombat Kodes to alter the gameplay.
 * For unknown reasons, Liu Kang and Sonya's Versus renders depict them in their secondary outfits as opposed to their primary outfits.
 * One Kombat Kode featured in the game is "Noob Saibot Mode", a kode that seemingly has no actual effect.
 * None of the game actors from the previous MK titles were used in MK4. Ed Boon, John Vogel and several other Midway employees provided motion-capture footage for the characters. In the end credits, several past actors such as Carlos Pesina, Tony Marquez, Kerri Hoskins and Sal Divita are mentioned as providing motion capture.
 * Sindel was supposed to be featured in the game with Kitana, but was scrapped out due to Fujin resembling her and having a similar Fatality.
 * Scorpion's "Get over here!" audio clip from this game was recycled in future games, notably in Mortal Kombat (2011). This changed in Mortal Kombat 11.
 * Though the character Reiko is male, the name "Reiko" is actually a feminine Japanese name, meaning "beautiful" or "lovely child."
 * Sareena was considered to be added to the roster (the MK team wanting to include another Mythologies character in addition to Quan Chi and Shinnok), but they decided to use Fujin instead.
 * This is the first MK fighting game to have animated endings.
 * Thus far, this (along with its update MK Gold) is the only fighting game in the series to feature kombatants speaking rather than having narration for their endings.
 * The Game Boy Color version of MK4 uses a modified version of the Game Boy's port of MK3's game engine. Due to the lack of power behind the Game Boy Color versus the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, the game itself was not in 3D, but boasted "full video" Fatalities (grainy renditions of certain MK4 Fatalities). This port is also one of the few (if not the only) Game Boy/Color titles to have voice-overs ("Round X", "Fight!", "Finish Him/Her!", grunting when getting hit, "Fatality!"), albeit the more discernible words used are from Shao Kahn's voice over effects from MK3.Interestingly enough, Tanya has the same male grunting sounds when she takes damage (possibly due to memory constraints on a Game Boy Color title).
 * In the CD-based versions and the N64 version of the game, the backgrounds of Goro's portrait is different, depending the version. In the N64 version, the background has flames in it, while on CD-based versions it is purple.
 * Kano was also planned for MK4, however, due to there not being enough new characters in the game, Kano was left out of the roster and put Jarek instead of him.
 * This is the only main game in the series so far to not feature Shang Tsung as a character, nor in the form of a cameo. Though, in MK Gold, he is mentioned in Mileena and Kitana's endings.
 * Some male characters, when performing a throw (or a special move), will say a gibberish statement that sounds like, "Hey I'm gonna throw you over there!" Also, Sub-Zero will say "Toca el hielo" (Touch the ice) when he does his Ice Clone move. Strangely enough, some other characters will say this statement when they do certain moves. It can be noted that although these characters are English/Asian speakers, they will speak Spanish (with the exception of Liu Kang and Shinnok). An example of this is when Scorpion takes out his sword he says "Mira que yo tengo" (Look what I have).
 * This is the only main game in the series (along with its update MK Gold) to not feature the background going dark when a Fatality is performed.
 * Shinnok is playable in the Game Boy Color version with a Gameshark code, also his specials moves and his Fatality can be executed by the player.
 * In the Game Boy Color version of the game, Scorpion's name on his health bar is written as "Scorpio" instead of "Scorpion". This stems from the fact that the health bars were too small to fit more than 7 characters.
 * Rarely, during demo mode, the initials of the player with the most wins will be shown and announced as "MK5." However, once the screen with the top 15 most wins appears, the top player's initials will return to normal. This is also the case with MKG. Whether this is an easter egg or a glitch is unknown.
 * In most of the pirated versions, endings, intros and background music were not in the game due to anti-piracy.

Glitches

 * Sometimes, when a character comes to deliver a neck-breaking move to the opponent, the other will say "Don't touch my head". When the move is performed, the player might be treated to a rare occurrence. Despite the opponent's neck being broken, he/she will scream out "AAAAH! My legs!"
 * When a character is defeated and falls to the ground, they will sometimes get back up, but then fall right back down. Other times, the defeated opponent will repeatedly rise and fall to the ground (this could happen when the camera pans in on the winning character's victory pose, showcased by the screen shaking with the fall over and over).
 * When a character is knocked to 0 HP using an uppercut and the "Finish Him!/Finish Her!" text appears, the character can sometimes still use an attack right after getting up. This can kill the other player, but the win is still awarded to the correct player.