Mortal Kombat 4

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Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4 cover.jpg
Cover artwork for the home versions
Developer(s) Midway Games (Arcade)
Eurocom (N64, PC, PS1)
Digital Eclipse (GBC)
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)
Programmer(s) Ed Boon
Artist(s)
  • John Tobias
  • David Lee Michicich
Composer(s) Dan Forden
Series Mortal Kombat
Platform(s) Arcade, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Game Boy Color
Release
September 11, 1997
  • Arcade
    Nintendo 64, PlayStation
    • NA: June 23, 1998 [4]
    • EU: September 15, 1998
    Windows
    • NA: June 30, 1998 [5]
    • EU: September 15, 1998
    Game Boy Color
    • NA: December 10, 1998 [6]
    • EU: 1999
Genre(s) Fighting
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system Midway Zeus

Mortal Kombat 4 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. It was later ported to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC, and Game Boy Color the following year, as well as an updated version titled Mortal Kombat Gold released exclusively for the Dreamcast.

Contents

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 rendering the graphics as it was one of the first 3D fighting games they developed. Co-creator Ed Boon stated 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

A screenshot from the game showing the newly implemented weapon system in a fight between Quan Chi and Reptile MK4 gameplay.png
A screenshot from the game showing the newly implemented weapon system in a fight between Quan Chi and Reptile

Mortal Kombat 4 is played in a similar way to the previous titles from the series; the run button and combos are still used, and despite the 3D graphics, characters are restricted to a 2D path except for sidestepping. [7] [8] 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 arena objects such as severed heads and rocks, another addition to the series. If an opponent's weapon is dropped, the other character is able to pick it up and use it. [9]

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 has the standard two Fatalities per character, in addition to two Stage Fatalities that can only be done in certain arenas and involve the winning character throwing their opponent into a 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. The 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 Netherrealm 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. [10]

Characters

Character selection screen of Mortal Kombat 4 Mortal Kombat 4 character selection screen.png
Character selection screen of Mortal Kombat 4

The game includes 15 playable characters, with additional secret characters. The following is a list of the characters included in the Mortal Kombat 4 character selection roster.

New characters:

Returning characters:

In addition, the game includes a hidden character and skin, Meat, that turns the player's character into a bloody and fleshy skeleton. The game also introduces alternate costumes, as opposed to the palette swaps in previous installments. Mortal Kombat Gold features five additional characters and one more secret character.

Development

Ed Boon, co-creator of the series, found it difficult to lead the development team for Mortal Kombat 4 due to the considerable increase in staff since the release of first Mortal Kombat title, with him as the only programmer. Therefore, Todd Allen and Mike Boon (Ed's younger brother) joined as programmers. [11] The Midway staff wanted to remove the comical elements from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, so they focused on making Fatalities. [12] [13] 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 difficult 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. [14] Some members of the development team had previously worked on War Gods , Midway's first 3D fighting game. [15] However, they abandoned the "digital skin" technique used in that game, since the new Zeus hardware allowed them to create characters with enough polygons that digital skin would offer little benefit; [13] Zeus could generate up to 1.2 million polygons per second. [9]

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 . [15] Several people, including Boon and Richard DiVizio, performed fighting moves to serve as the basis for the animation. [16]

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. [12] 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. [17] 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. [18] 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. [19] 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. [20]

Release

The arcade version of Mortal Kombat 4 was released in September 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, which had previously developed the Sega Saturn version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , was in charge of making the console versions of the game. They worked for roughly eight months to finish the Nintendo 64 port. [21] One of their main objectives was to have the game run at a consistent 60 frames per second. While all the traits from the arcade mode were added to the home version, Eurocom had to reduce the polygon count due to the more limited resources of the Nintendo 64. [21] Eurocom was also assisted by Ed Boon and the lead artist on the arcade game, Dave Michicich. [21] The port adds 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. The Nintendo 64 version, being a cartridge game, uses the in-game character animations to run them just like its arcade counterpart. [22] The two platforms that offer FMV endings have 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. [23]

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. [24] 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. [24]

Reception

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. [42]

In reviews for the arcade version, Next Generation and GamePro both noted that while the graphics are in 3D, the gameplay is in the same 2D format as previous installments. [7] [43] Both also opined that the game had sharp graphics and a pleasing blend of old characters with strong newcomers. [7] [43] Next Generation called it "a fast-moving, dark, and disturbing fighter that retains many of the series' best qualities." The reviewer felt the lack of genuine innovation was a major strike against it, but concluded, "It may not be what we'd hoped for, but it's much better than War Gods ." [7] GamePro had other misgivings, noting that version 1.0 has a number of bugs, includes only a handful of fatalities, and controls less responsively than previous games in the series. However, they found the weapons system, new characters, and foreboding music make it fresh enough to be worth playing. [43] They gave a more unreservedly positive review to version 2.0, stating that it added true 3D movement and corrected the control issues, though the camera still had occasional problems and certain moves were too hard to block. [44]

GameRankings had an average of 76.07% from 20 reviews for the Nintendo 64 version of the game, [25] 75.75% with 16 reviews for the PlayStation version, [26] and 72.14% with 14 reviews for the PC version. [27] 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. [28] The PlayStation and PC ports have been said to have improvements over the arcade game such as having more responsive controls and the exclusive FMV scenes. [30] [34] However, IGN mentioned that playing the PC port would become "stale" unless the player "had an extra pad and a friend" [35] and the Official UK PlayStation Magazine said that the game was "the same old stuff trotted out with a fresh coat of pixels. Tedious." [39]

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. [29] [31] [33] 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. [33]

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." [36]

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." [37]

The Game Boy Color version 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. [32] Similarly IGN's Peer Schneider criticized how limited the gameplay had become in this version and how defeating the opponent was easier. He gave the game a "Poor" 4.0 out of 10. [24]

In retrospective, GamesRadar criticized the endings for the Nintendo 64 version of the game using a compilation from them for an April Fools joke, labelling them as hilarious due to their poor quality. [45] [46] Mortal Kombat 4 was ranked as having the third best Game Over screen of all time by GamePro in 2009. [47] According to 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." [15] In 2020 CBR positively reviewed the game praising it for introducing "weapon styles" that would be featured in future games and stated that the game is "still an integral part of the franchise's history". [48]

Related Research Articles

<i>Mortal Kombat Annihilation</i> 1997 martial arts fantasy film

Mortal Kombat Annihilation is a 1997 American martial arts fantasy film directed by John R. Leonetti in his directorial debut. Based on the Mortal Kombat video game franchise, it is the second installment in the Mortal Kombat film series and a sequel to the original 1995 film, on which Leonetti served as cinematographer. Largely adapted from the 1995 video game Mortal Kombat 3, Annihilation follows Liu Kang and his allies as they attempt to prevent the malevolent Shao Kahn from conquering Earthrealm. It stars Robin Shou as Liu Kang, Talisa Soto as Kitana, James Remar as Raiden, Sandra Hess as Sonya Blade, Lynn “Red” Williams as Jax and Brian Thompson as Shao Kahn. Only Shou and Soto reprised their roles, with the other characters from the previous film being recast.

<i>Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance</i> 2002 video game

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is a 2002 fighting game developed and published by Midway for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. It was the first all-new Mortal Kombat fighting game produced exclusively for home consoles, with no preceding arcade release. It is the fifth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and a sequel to 1997's Mortal Kombat 4. Its story focuses on the eponymous alliance between sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung and their schemes to revive an ancient army to conquer Outworld and Earthrealm. The game is the only main installment not to feature series protagonist Liu Kang as a playable character. It is also the first game in the canon series to not have the involvement of co-creator John Tobias, as he left Midway in 1999 to pursue other interests.

Characters of the <i>Mortal Kombat</i> series

This is a list of playable and boss characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise and the games in which they appear. Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, the series depicts conflicts between various realms. Most characters fight on behalf of their realm, with the primary heroes defending Earthrealm against conquering villains from Outworld and the Netherrealm. Early installments feature the characters participating in the eponymous Mortal Kombat tournament to decide their realm's fate. In later installments, Earthrealm is often invaded by force.

<i>Mortal Kombat 3</i> 1995 video game

Mortal Kombat 3 is a 1995 arcade fighting game developed by Midway Games. It is the third main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and a sequel to 1993's Mortal Kombat II. As in the previous games, it has a cast of characters that players choose from and guide through a series of battles against other opponents. The game avoids the tournament storyline of its predecessors, as various warriors instead fight against the returning Shao Kahn, who has resurrected his bride Sindel and started an invasion of Earthrealm.

<i>Mortal Kombat Trilogy</i> 1996 video game

Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a fighting game released by Midway in 1996 as the second and final update to Mortal Kombat 3 for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn and PCs. Further versions were also released for the Game.com and R-Zone. It features a similar basic gameplay system and the same story as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but adds characters and stages restored from Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. New additions to the game included the "Aggressor" bar. The Brutality mechanic was introduced with this installment. The game was met with positive to mixed reviews upon release.

<i>Mortal Kombat II</i> 1993 video game

Mortal Kombat II is a fighting game originally produced by Midway for the arcades in 1993. It was ported to multiple home systems, including MS-DOS, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, 32X, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and PlayStation only in Japan, mostly in licensed versions developed by Probe Software and Sculptured Software and published by Acclaim Entertainment.

Fatality (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Various finishing moves that kill the opposing player

Fatality is the name given to a gameplay feature in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games, in which the victor of the final round in a match inflicts a brutal and gruesome finishing move onto their defeated opponent. Prompted by the announcer saying "Finish Him/Her", players have a short time window to execute a Fatality by entering a specific button and joystick or D-Pad combination, while positioned at a specific distance from the opponent. The Fatality and its derivations are notable features of the Mortal Kombat series and have caused a large cultural impact and controversies.

<i>Mortal Kombat: Deception</i> 2004 video game

Mortal Kombat: Deception is a 2004 fighting game developed and published by Midway. It is the sixth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and a sequel to 2002's Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, for the GameCube in March 2005 and later ported for the PlayStation Portable under the title Mortal Kombat: Unchained in November 2006. Mortal Kombat: Deception follows the storyline from the fifth installment, Deadly Alliance. Its story centers on the revival of the Dragon King Onaga, who attempts to conquer the realms featured in the series after defeating the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, the main antagonists in the previous game, and the Thunder God Raiden, defender of Earthrealm. The surviving warriors from the previous titles join forces to confront Onaga.

<i>Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3</i> Fighting video game

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series, developed and released by Midway to arcades in 1995. It is a standalone update of 1995's earlier Mortal Kombat 3 with an altered gameplay system, additional characters like the returning favorites Reptile, Kitana, Jade and Scorpion who were missing from Mortal Kombat 3, and some new features.

<i>Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero</i> 1997 video game

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<i>Mortal Kombat Gold</i> Fighting video game

Mortal Kombat Gold is a 1999 fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series that was published by Midway Home Entertainment. It was developed by Eurocom and released exclusively on the Dreamcast as a launch title. It is an updated version of 1997's Mortal Kombat 4 and was the first game to appear on a sixth-generation platform as well as the only Mortal Kombat game to be released for the Dreamcast console. Critical reaction was mostly average due to the graphics being inferior to the arcade version, the weapons deemed boring or useless, and game-breaking bugs and glitches.

<i>War Gods</i> (video game) 1997 video game

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<i>Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks</i> 2005 video game

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<i>Mortal Kombat: Armageddon</i> 2006 video game

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<i>Mortal Kombat</i> Video game series and multimedia franchise

Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992.

<i>Mortal Kombat</i> (2011 video game) 2011 fighting video game

Mortal Kombat is a 2011 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the ninth main installment in the Mortal Kombat series and a soft reboot of the series. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems in April 2011, and a PlayStation Vita port was released in May 2012. An expanded version of the game, titled Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February 2012 and for Microsoft Windows in July 2013.

<i>Mortal Kombat</i> (1992 video game) 1992 fighting game

Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting game developed and published by Midway. It is the first entry in the Mortal Kombat series and was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home platform at that time. The game focuses on several characters of various intentions who enter a martial arts tournament with worldly consequences. It introduced many key aspects of the Mortal Kombat series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves called Fatalities.

Raiden (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Mortal Kombat character

Raiden is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Based on the Japanese deity Raijin, he is depicted as the god of thunder who possesses control over lightning. He debuted in the original 1992 game and has appeared as a playable character in every main installment except Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) and its first update. In the storyline of the games, Raiden is the protector of Earthrealm. He fulfills his duty by selecting and training the warriors who defend Earthrealm from various threats, while also participating directly in the realm's defense. Raiden generally serves as a mentor figure to the franchise's heroes, although he sometimes assumes a darker role in the story, which sees him become more ruthless in his protection of the realm. One of the franchise's central characters, Raiden has appeared in various related media outside of the Mortal Kombat games, including guest appearances in NBA Jam Tournament Edition (1995), NFL Blitz (1997), Unreal Championship 2 (2005), and Injustice 2 (2017). He has generally received a positive reception and is among the series' most popular characters for his design and special abilities.

<i>Mortal Kombat 11</i> 2019 fighting video game

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<i>Mortal Kombat X</i> 2015 fighting video game

Mortal Kombat X is a 2015 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were also due to release, but both versions were cancelled. It is the tenth main installment in the Mortal Kombat series and a sequel to Mortal Kombat (2011), taking place 25 years later after the events of its predecessor. High Voltage Software developed the Windows version of the game, with Polish studio QLOC taking over the work on it shortly after the release of Kombat Pack 1.

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  36. 1 2 "Finals". Next Generation . No. 44. Imagine Media. August 1998. p. 94.
  37. 1 2 "Finals". Next Generation . No. 46. Imagine Media. October 1998. p. 126.
  38. ↑ "PC Gamer Online". PC Gamer . March 5, 2000. Archived from the original on March 5, 2000. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
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  40. ↑ Da GamePro (July 1998). "MORTAL KOMBAT 4". SuperGamePower (in Portuguese). p. 22.
  41. ↑ "Mortal Kombat 4". Total Game Boy (2): 18–19. 1999.
  42. ↑ Midway (2002). Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance . Midway. Level/area: History of Mortal Kombat.
  43. 1 2 3 The UnKredited Kombatant (December 1997). "Hot at the Arcades: Mortal Kombat 4". GamePro . No. 111. IDG. pp. 122–3.
  44. ↑ Johnny Ballgame (February 1998). "Hot at the Arcades: Mortal Kombat 4 Revision 2". GamePro . No. 113. IDG. pp. 72–3.
  45. ↑ Antista, Chris (April 1, 2011). "Mortal Kombat Endings LEAKED!!!". GamesRadar . Retrieved June 23, 2011.
  46. ↑ Antista, Chris (April 12, 2011). "Mortal Kombat: The Animated Series stupidity". GamesRadar . Retrieved June 23, 2011.
  47. ↑ "6 Spectacular Game Over Screens". GamePro . IDG Entertainment. November 2009. p. 22.
  48. ↑ "Mortal Kombat 4 on GOG is a Huge Surprise - Here's Why". March 18, 2020. Archived from the original on November 17, 2023. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
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