If there was an award for most awkward conversion into 3D, it would probably go to Bubsy 3D, but Mortal Kombat would be one of the big runners up. Around the turn of the century, the market for games started to become a little chaotic as systems and gaming power started to go on the rise. Arcade cabinets started to become larger, started costing 1 Spacebuck a pop instead of 2 bits and home consoles started to come on the rise. This was a big problem for both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, as both were having some serious problems meeting expectations on the 3D front.
While Street Fighter approached the Dreamcast with a dismal outlook of a 2D fighter, Mortal Kombat came at it with Mortal Kombat 4. While some will come out and say that, even though sales were not great for Street Fighter III, the overall game was still far better. You won't get any argument here, but at the same time, it didn't matter as both titles were seen as lowpoints in their respective franchises.
One thing that people will cling to on this game are the ending cutscenes and yes, they are as magical as legend tells. We'll get to those, but right now, we need to talk a little bit about the game itself. While it isn't look back on very fondly, it seems there is a great many people who immediately cast it aside as garbage and that seems extremely unfair for a number of reasons.
Barring the difficulty of 3D conversion in the first place, the graphics look terrible and the character designs have to be some of the worst in the entire franchise. There's really no defending any of the graphical choices in this game on any scale, it's obvious that they rushed these polygons to an absurd level. Can this be considered gritty 2000's graphics camp? Absolutely, for multiple reasons.
Thanks to the terrible graphics and even worse voice acting, the endings for this game have taken on something of a cult following all their own. Even people who didn't like the game on the arcade or the Dreamcast will admit that these cutscenes are some of the best cheese in the business. Seriously, it was very clear that they had entirely too much fun with these. There are clearly cut corners, horrific voice clips, terrible sound and some of the most tacked on backgrounds imaginable (sometimes literally) in just about every single scene. The pacing of these are laughable, the voicing is very tone deaf and some scenes are nothing but blatant exposition of people speaking at each other in important tones. Do yourself a favor and watch every single one of them, they are hilarious!
Then there are the things that seem to go overlooked. While the controls and fighting mechanics aren't stellar, nor do they bring a great deal of new things to the table, they are not bad at all. Yes, sometimes the physics can get wonky and there are glitches. It's the 2000's in a new 3D title, if you didn't expect this, you're mad! This is also the unfortunate version of the game that came with everyone getting weapons. Yes, the weapons mechanics can be seen as something of another blemish on an already bruised up face. Their implimentation was clumsy and a lot of the time you would take out your weapon, only to have it knocked from your hands again. That doesn't take away the fact that these fights and the matches themselves are still a lot of fun. There are still fatalities and there are even some really cool stage fatalities!
The stages are some of the best parts of the game, believe it or not. Not only are there some stages that are built after classic stages such as the forest with all of the faces and the acid pit, but the stage fatalities are quite common for the AI. Anyone will tell you that MK opponents that do fatalities are what we look for here on Planet Virtua. The blood is plentiful in this game, and while the graphics are very crude, even for the time, it shows that they concentrated more on the fighting rather than cosmetics.
It's still a choppy game, don't get the wrong idea from this review. It's a niche game for a small audience, but there are a lot worse options out there. The Dreamcast controls may be a little on the floaty side but it was clear that they learned a great deal just by making this game. From here on, the 3D era of Mortal Kombat would grow. Even though they had some steps back like the Sub-Zero game for the N64 or Special Forces for the Playstation, Deadly Alliance and Deception would at least push them through to Armageddon with a trilogy of games that are still looked back on somewhat fondly. They weren't the best send off to the reboot, but they worked for what they were.
MK4 was transitional, plain and simple. As trial and error goes, it really could have been far worse. The Gold edition was also something of a grand sending off for the game as well, given that you have 6 whole new combatants at your disposal. Two of these characters are the new main badguys, Quanchi and Shinnok. While Shinnok did little to impress fans in lieu of Shaokahn, Quanchi proved to be one of MK's favorite villains. He's a sorcerer like Shang Tsung, but it seems he has more ties to powers that aid a wider range of overlords. He also was responsible for deeds such as the killing of Scorpion's family and took the souls of several of Earth Realm's top fighters upon their death, bring them under his command.
This was something of a main focus of the new character designs and while a lot of the characters would be put by the wayside in future installments, MK4 still served its purpose as the first Mortal Kombat 3D title. While it has its faults and downfalls, there is still a solid core of the franchise within its DNA that keeps it from being a total waste of time and without merit. Dreamcast enthusiasts and classic players still hold this title to some esteem, in spite of its flaws. For those who enjoy it for the camp graphics and cheap 3D showmanship, it can be fun to pop in and go a few rounds. When no one is looking, though, it's fun to pull a 180 and pop in some Paw Patrol every once--wait where are you going?
