Mortal Kombat 4

[Anonymous No.10777018]

Was this game unfairly shitted on when it first came out because it was in 3D?, or is the game from a gameplay perspective somehow worse than the original trilogy?

[Anonymous No.10777021]

>>10777018
Is this game any good?

[Anonymous No.10777035]

>>10777021
I like it.

[Anonymous No.10777073]

>>10777018
It’s equally as shit as MK3/Trilogy.
The run button is probably the worst decision they ever made. Who fucking knows why they didn’t make a fuckin double tap quick dash? Anyone?
MKs version of dial-a-combos in MK3/4 are really jerky/choppy guess, I don’t know how else to describe it. It just looks and feels like shit. They should have just lifted KIs combo system and improved it.
With that said MK2 is the most polished, and most fun of the original games. Everything after that was a steep decline

[Anonymous No.10777079]

>>10777018
It was the Quan Chi on the arcade cabinet

[Anonymous No.10777081]

>>10777021
Music, SFX, and blood spatter are just as good if not better than the original games, the only real difference i notice are the obvious graphical changes, 3d instead of being 2d.

They also added weapons to the game but they can pretty much be ignored.

[Anonymous No.10777090]

>>10777018
I mean, just look at the picture you just posted. The graphics are shockingly bad.

[Anonymous No.10777097]

>>10777090
I could say the same about r-type delta, but you know that game was amazing and considered the best r-type, even with its shitty graphics.

[Anonymous No.10777115]

>>10777021
Nope.

[Anonymous No.10777116]

>>10777097
Not at all. R-Type Delta has some cool looking textures, great lighting, cool effects. Actually the only thing that doesn't look good about it are the wobbling Playstation textures.
MK4 has ugly, blurry textures, godawful animation, bad looking 3d models.

[Anonymous No.10777129]

>>10777116
>ugly, blurry textures
Like every other 3d game to come out in the late nineties?

[Anonymous No.10777137]

>>10777018
if you're a competitive sweat, yes it was a downgrade from 2D MK. But as a casual I had a blast and loved the 3D aesthetic and FMVs. still play it every year.

[Anonymous No.10777147]

>>10777018
No, gameplay was a massive step down from UMK3 and the presentation was just bad compared to other 3d fighters of the time.

[Anonymous No.10777151]

>>10777018
Somehow i think these graphics aged better than the pre-rendered ones.
It has the early 3D charm that the classic ones don't have.

[Anonymous No.10777153]

>>10777147
>gameplay was a massive step down from UMK3
In what way? How was MK4 worse?

[Anonymous No.10777168]

>>10777129
A lot of late 90s games are really ugly, but that doesn't excuse MK4.
Also my man brought up R-Type. Which I don't think is the best looking game ever or anything, but look at the texture detail here. MK4 is an arcade game, this is a Playstation game...

[Anonymous No.10777179]

>>10777168
MK4 had its charm.

[Anonymous No.10777226]

>>10777018
if anything being 3d gave games too many points by critics, at the time. if you didn’t abandon 2d sprites by a certain point, critics dismissed your game as shit and outdated even if it was 3rd strike

[Anonymous No.10777237]

>>10777168
This makes me wish that there were more schmups that went past alpha phase where, at least depending on the kind of ship or whatever you control, it took 2, 3, maybe 4 hits from enemy attacks to go down.

[Anonymous No.10777298]

Is it bad that I hate the first 3 Mortal Kombat games?

[Anonymous No.10777326]

>>10777298
If the dark fantasy kung-fu aesthetic doesn't appeal to you, there's not much reason to like them. The gameplay is incredibly basic.

[Anonymous No.10777357]

>>10777018
They should have went with more realistic textures like they did in War Gods

[Anonymous No.10777390]

>>10777326
No I like the aesthetic and I like the gameplay. I just fucking hate the AI.

[Anonymous No.10777391]

>>10777357
Wargods is ugly, but in a tacky, eye catching way. It is legitimately a better looking game than MK4.

[Anonymous No.10777453]

>>10777153
All Midway's Zeus based arcade games had weird ass animation. It was butter smooth but bizarrely fast. For a game like The Grid which relies on utter chaos it's fine but MK4 feels like playing a Benny Hill skit which isn't great for a 1v1 fighting game.

[Anonymous No.10777513]

>>10777018
I enjoy MK4, it's one of those stupid ass games my cousin and I would have fun playing and goofing off in trying to do all the fatalities and special moves. You can definitely do a lot worse.

[Anonymous No.10777514]

>>10777390
The AI is that way in the same way Casino slots and poker machines are rigged. Those games were made to steal your money in arcades.

[Anonymous No.10777667]

The game was fine, but the cutscenes were pure cringekino
https://youtu.be/QW765DsN6Z0?si=kfAXcSPZNbOqCEpD

[Anonymous No.10777670]

>>10777390
>>10777514
The AI was so rigged to instantly 0 frame react to whatever you did, that it was also hilariously easy to take advantage of.

[Anonymous No.10777696]

>>10777670
God, I love how ever MK game has some lame cheese that is the only way to actually beat the game vs. the computer.

[Anonymous No.10777760]

It was too early for them to go full 3D, the graphics weren't advanced enough to be worth the transition. The digitized live-action sprites were a huge part of the series' identity at this time and this game abandoned that to look worse than Tekken 3.

[Anonymous No.10777767]

>>10777021
If you like western video game jank? Yes.
If you don't? Stay far away.

[Anonymous No.10777771]

>>10777667
I remember completing arcade mode just to watch these and laugh.

[Anonymous No.10777905]

>>10777357
I've always said that the digitized actors in 1/2/3 was what made Mortal Kombat groundbreaking in the 90s because that combined with the gore gave it a level of "realism" at the time that was so intense. It really seemed like there were people in the arcade cabinet getting mangled. You just had to be there I guess. So yeah once MK4 came out with its goofy polygons that was the death knell of what made MK interesting in the first place.

[Anonymous No.10778009]

>>10777670
>>10777696
It's actually kind of ridiculous that Midway was able to get away with this frankly.

[Anonymous No.10778237]

>>10777390
>>10777670
>>10777696
Here is one of the hardest midbosses, I got lucky with an early roar, but as long as you have a sliver of health and you get him frozen near a wall you can guarantee a win.

>>10777021
The game is not really all that bad. It just had the problem of having to follow MK3 Ultimate, and Trilogy. Both games had an insanely large roster, lots of combos, fatalities, friendships, animalities, brutalities, and overall plenty of content.
This kinda happened to Street Fighter, going from Zero 3 to 3 and other games that went from an engine that had a lot of work put into it to a new one that was more advanced and required more work.
It didn't help that 3D tech wasn't that robust back then and also as others mentioned dropping the actual people photography that made it look kinda bad/goofy (even back then).
It's not an offensively bad game by any means. It's just not that good.
By the way some arcade revisions had insanely fun combos, like SubZero statue abuse, or some Scorpion goodness, these were patched out for the home versions.

[Anonymous No.10778303]

>>10777018
I really liked this game. All my friends I played it with really liked this game.

I don't understand this zoomer concept of, "a game is only good if the popular consensus said it was on debut."

[Anonymous No.10778319]

>>10777018
On the first sight it might look shitty, but it is fun to play with all that sounds and animations. Definitely getting Mortal Kombat spirit. Also, for some reason each fight has been loading in a matter of seconds on win95, but took a minute or two on win98.

[Anonymous No.10778396]

>>10777670
Maybe I'm retarded, but how do you exploit it? The last time I played MK2 on SNES I got my shit wrecked by the AI.

[Anonymous No.10778517]

>>10777018
No, it was very fairly shitted on because it looked like crap, had poor 3d graphics, laughable animation, and a few attacks were just plain dumb.

The authors stated they wanted to bring back the gory days of the first Mortal Kombat, so they removed all the dumb things like Friendships and Babalities. And then they added a special move where you twist a guys head backwards or flip their legs/arms backwards at the joint, DURING THE FIGHT, and they just shake it off like they were Boneless Chicken or something.

[Anonymous No.10778535]

>>10777129
>Like every other 3d game to come out in the late nineties?

no, not every other one.

[Anonymous No.10778545]

>>10778517
>being hit with a rocket/grenade/fireball is fine
>taking some massage is suddenly not
Do you prefer realism only in certain instances, or you just don't like Mortal Kombat in general?

[Anonymous No.10778550]

>>10778009
>It's actually kind of ridiculous that Midway was able to get away with this frankly.

It wasn't just them, have you played any version of Street Fighter 2 vs the AI, in the arcade version? They have moves purposefully missing some frames so they come out faster, can 1 frame charge Sonic Boom/Flash Kicks, and get out of dizzies in half a second.

[Anonymous No.10778567]

>>10778517
It's funny because MK4 is way goofier than any other game in the series.

https://youtu.be/62IW2zl3m8U?si=2o9UhuOdiy-7f1Hf

[Anonymous No.10778582]

>>10778545
the problem isn't realism but that it looks really fucking silly, like something out of Looney Tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6addmZ4Pf34

[Anonymous No.10778602]

>>10777153
>All characters share the same normals and simple combos, pallet swaps in earlier games would share normals but in MK2 there weren't many and in UMK3 pallet swaps had unique dial combos.
>Weapons are either useless or broken
>Maximum Damage is the laziest fix for infinites and it doesn't even work.

[Anonymous No.10778613]

>>10778582
>"OHIMGONNATHROWYOUOVERTHERE!"
My sides

[Anonymous No.10778625]

>>10778582
>1:28
>"ASSHOLE!"
>*snaps neck*
>"OW MY LEG!"

[Anonymous No.10778713]

>>10777090
Are you saying the Dreamcast has bad graphics here?

[Anonymous No.10778719]

It was decent at the time. I was young though. But me and my friend had a blast playing through it with as many characters we could beat it with so we could see those FMVs. They were worth going through the entire arcade ladder over and over again. In fact, I think it's the one I've beaten the most in the whole franchise because of those hilarious endings.

[Anonymous No.10778917]

>>10777670
That cheese doesn't work if you play as Kitana or Mileena for whatever reason...

>>10778713
NTA, but that's not even from the Dreamcast version. IMO, however, the DC version does have some fucked up looking lighting on the character models.

[Anonymous No.10778926]

>>10777018
Its inferior to trilogy, but much better than what mortal Kombat has become nowadays. I find It really charming, from an aesthetical standpoint, because Its models are really cute and comics-like

[Anonymous No.10778946]

They really figured out how to make a 3D game that plays like 2D fighters within the hardware limitations. I believe it was the first one to try it and they nailed it. But the roster is recycled garbage.

[Anonymous No.10779715]

>>10777073
My theory is they added the button for run because they were too lazy to reprogram the [-> -> attack] commands (Liu Kang fireball, Reptile spit, etc).
Just add a button! It’s easier

[Anonymous No.10779996]

>>10777018
I started playing Mortal Kombat first on my SNES during Fall of 1993 when I was 13. Became a hardcore fan. By the time Mortal Kombat Trilogy came out, I was checking out of the franchise. Never really came back after UMK3 arcade.

[Anonymous No.10781057]

The truth is MK is good most of the time by accident and not because the developers are in tune with what makes an FG fun, its carried by its legacy and nostalgia purely, UMK3, 9 & X being like the only foundly remembered games on a compative level shows that. This isn't to say there bad games, but trying to compare MK to shit like SF and tekken when at evo the new one is literally getting beaten in player numbers by guilty gear, melty blood and a 20 year old third strike should tell you everything about how many people take it seriously on a compative level. Mk is kusogie. More people play smash brothers seriously and that's a series people debate can even be played at a compative level to begin with.

[Anonymous No.10781184]

>>10778535
>says all early 3D games didn't have ugly blurry textures
>posts an early 3D game with ugly blurry textures

What did you mean by this?

[Anonymous No.10781191]

>>10781184
Get your eyes checked? Those are crystal clear to the point you can see the individual pixels.

[Anonymous No.10781194]

>>10778517
>looked like crap

It looked fine for a game that came out in 1997. The comment about the bad animation is true though.

[Anonymous No.10781198]

>>10781194
It looks fine for an N64 game, but definitely subpar for an arcade game.

[Anonymous No.10781206]

>>10781191
>Crystal clear
>thinks that because the game has no bilinear filtering that makes the insanely low resolution textures "good"
>thinks the pixelation from them being blown-the-fuck-up to fit on their geometry is "high res"

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, STOP IT ANON, STOP IT, YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME CRY, BAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA

[Anonymous No.10781208]

>>10781206
It is time to stop posting.

[Anonymous No.10781220]

>>10781208
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n5E7feJHw0

[Anonymous No.10781319]

MK4 is literally the only good MK game besides Shaolin Monks and MK Armageddon

[Anonymous No.10781471]

>OUR BATTLE IS FINISHED. YOU ARE NOW FREED FROM MY CURSE. LIVE WELL, LIN KUEI WARRIOR.
>...Arrright.

[Anonymous No.10781671]

I wonder if they ever clarified why they made these cutscenes so bad. They wanted to return Mortal Kombat to its roots and make it more serious and dark, but you have these goofy throw animations and sound clips. They clearly care about the lore in the first three games, but it's like the team gave up and no one couldn't give a shit by the time they were done with MK4.

>What will you do next?
>I don't know. Wander the Earth, search for my soul. That kind of thing

[Anonymous No.10781725]

>>10779715
dashing wasn't yet a standard thing in fighting games when MK3 got the run button. Remember, it came out in 1994. Darkstalkers, some SNK games and Power Instinct had dash and that was it. It was more of a thing in scrolling beat'em ups, where it made you RUN and not dash.

And they made it button probably for the same reason they made blocking a button. Less confusing to the average kid who isn't a super ultra grandmaster of fighting games. Being more immediately accessible has always been Mortal Kombats pro and contra, it's also why every character has the same basic moves and only have a difference in specials and from MK3 forwards, combos.

[Anonymous No.10782079]

>>10777079
This. It was this creepy fucker. Imagine getting molested in the arcade and having to stare at this fucking face. That'd fuck anyone up. It makes me sick, I can't even look at it.

[Anonymous No.10782087]

>>10777018
Its one of those games that was absolutely cool in like 1998 1999 2000. I mean youd probably play it for a half hour and get bored. The best thing about this game is the arcade mode endings. Thats about it desu

[Anonymous No.10782846]

>>10782079
That's Richard Divizio who played Kano in the original games. I like him as Quan Chi for his "funny serious" performance.

[Anonymous No.10782856]

>>10781671
MK was going through an identity crisis at the time and it's reputation was in the toilet. The first two games were huge, obviously, and the first movie had a memorable marketing tie-in with MK3, both of which being very well received. But as the MK3 revisions carried on and other games started making people question the stagnation and cheapness of adding new ninja palette swaps with increasingly absurd concepts, it started coming off as a self-parody. The Defenders of the Realm children's cartoon didn't help, nor did the disaster that was MK Mythologies. The second movie, fun as it is to watch, is so laughably bad that any good will people had for the series was spent. MK4 came out around the same time Tekken 3 did. It was no contest. It's possible they knew the game they were making looked silly and people didn't have a lot of respect for the IP at that point so they may have leaned into it.

[Anonymous No.10782869]

>>10777018
It felt like a giant downgrade from the cool arcade physics. I still remember watching the ping pong velcro suit videos for that