MK4 was awesome but it was easy to get bored of this game. Do anybody know where I can find a MAME of the arcade version of MK4? via PM

I agree that the gameplay of MK4 is what held it back. It definately had the speed to be a top notch fighter, some of the characters were cool, as were some of the backgrounds and many of the background musics.

I don't think it was intentionally designed to have 2D gameplay, at least not as 2D as it ended up being. I really thing the designers came up short on creating a good engine for it, they just didn't get it right.

This is understandable because the style of gameplay they were attempting really wasn't around in 3D games then, or even now. You mentioned Tekken 3 being the biggest 3D game at the time, but that game is totally different in its style of gameplay, as were the other biggies like the VF series.

It seems they tried for something new, and didn't achieve everything they needed to to make it a deep, fantastic game. They realized by MKDA that there were aspects of the old mortal kombat games that could not make the transition into 3D.

I don't know how rushed it was - but I do know that the creators thought the new Zeus technology was incredible, and maybe they left out some of the fun because they were so hooked up on the graphics of the fighters and arenas (which were good for '97) but it still is a good game. I thought the game had less replay value due to the fact that although the character cast was interesting, the game makers didn't make half of the them reach their full potential... (Reiko, Tanya, Fujin, Shinnok?????)

Fujin was alright as a character. Only character then that had no projectiles, excluding his crossbow. Should of Shinnok been like he was in MKM:S-Z? I think so, but why wasn't he, why wasn't he the badass boss that Shao Kahn was and why was there no Sub-boss until the home versions(and a very obscure arcade version) was it because they were amazed by the graphics and saw no need to give MK fans a challenging boss fight? Or did they just realize in the end that they spent to much time focusing on characters and designs and fatalities that in the end a real boss fight and fighting system would take to much time?

They didn't spend enough time on any part of the game. Even for the time the graphics were sub par.

Their sound effects were about 75% of the cool/corny way they do them. Some sounds were just dumb and didn't even sound like people.

The engine for fighting was powerful yes, but they adapted the 2D style to a 3D look and added REALLY BAD sidestepping. It is useful for only avoiding projectiles, 99% of the time if you side step an attack, no matter how you time it, you get hit, and the delay there is on sidestepping was silly. Run was absurdly fast, it was as fast if not faster than Reptile's dash move in UMK3, and run recharges faster. This may "enhance" gameplay to some, but in reality it makes the game hectic, and hasteful.

Maximum damage was the shiningest star that they didn't care one bit about how the gameplay for MK4 was. You can't turn it off in the arcade as far as I know, and that's where it matters. They should have brought the push back mid screen off hits like in MK1 and MK2. There were ways around it to still get high damage combos, but with damage protection that surely would not happen. Instead of a percentage limit, a standard scenario that causes the push back.

The characters are all virtually identical in priority and what not except for special moves. All roundhouses, uppercuts, HKs, jump kicks, jump punches, etc, are the same.

Everyone has the exact same autocombos, and everyone has launchers. The system is so botched that created anything decent off a pop up combo is nearly impossible. It's like Tekken juggles practically when it was meant to be more than that. The lack of security when doing a jump punch to combo was something that annoyed me as well, and you really have to quickly mash out combos, they all feel like the difference between doing Sektor's 4 hit and 5 hit combo in MK3, and Liu Kang's 4 and 5 hit.

The game is trash and Goro should have been the ending boss.

Matt

MK2KungBroken Wrote: They didn't spend enough time on any part of the game. Even for the time the graphics were sub par. Their sound effects were about 75% of the cool/corny way they do them. Some sounds were just dumb and didn't even sound like people. The engine for fighting was powerful yes, but they adapted the 2D style to a 3D look and added REALLY BAD sidestepping. It is useful for only avoiding projectiles, 99% of the time if you side step an attack, no matter how you time it, you get hit, and the delay there is on sidestepping was silly. Run was absurdly fast, it was as fast if not faster than Reptile's dash move in UMK3, and run recharges faster. This may "enhance" gameplay to some, but in reality it makes the game hectic, and hasteful. Maximum damage was the shiningest star that they didn't care one bit about how the gameplay for MK4 was. You can't turn it off in the arcade as far as I know, and that's where it matters. They should have brought the push back mid screen off hits like in MK1 and MK2. There were ways around it to still get high damage combos, but with damage protection that surely would not happen. Instead of a percentage limit, a standard scenario that causes the push back. The characters are all virtually identical in priority and what not except for special moves. All roundhouses, uppercuts, HKs, jump kicks, jump punches, etc, are the same. Everyone has the exact same autocombos, and everyone has launchers. The system is so botched that created anything decent off a pop up combo is nearly impossible. It's like Tekken juggles practically when it was meant to be more than that. The lack of security when doing a jump punch to combo was something that annoyed me as well, and you really have to quickly mash out combos, they all feel like the difference between doing Sektor's 4 hit and 5 hit combo in MK3, and Liu Kang's 4 and 5 hit. The game is trash and Goro should have been the ending boss. Matt

Agreed,MK4 was okay though it's fun if you have someone to play with.I think that's the reason why MK4 charcters didn't become big because everyone had the same exact combos.