I was thinking about this myself. But I was thinking more along the lines of "was MK4 a failure as a competitive fighting game?" And honestly. I don't even know the answer to that. Because so few people played it competitively, and I don't even know why. It's like the only arcade fighting game in history that people played but never actually played. From memory, I mean I was never "good" at it really, but I didn't recall it being particularly broken. I went to youtube to do some research because I no longer have the game and can't do any myself, and I found this combo video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShJyYM-ATw

I'm looking at this and I'm seeing some pretty badass combos (including a 75% Scorpion combo), but I'm not seeing any infinites, and generally nothing really much over 50%. Judging by that it still seems like a playable (if juggle heavy) game.

So I'm thinking. Maybe it was a little bit clunky, but why is there such little discussion about the gameplay and about it as a competitive game in general? I don't really understand. Like I've never even really seen a proper tier list or anything. People talk about that shit more even in regards to MKII. It's like MK4 got completely swept under the rug.

Anybody actually know why that is? Or did anyone here actually play MK4 competitively?

Most importantly, what makes MK4 a "bad" competitive fighting game like everyone says it is? Maybe I just need to sit down and really play it again, but from what I recall of it, I'm not seeing how it was any worse than some of the trash Midway released in the last couple of years.

Was MK4 a failure to the videogame industry? maybe

Was it a failure to me, hell no! I really loved it, to this day I play it every once in a while. I'm trying to get my dreamcast hooked up to my hdtv for old times sake, playing MK Gold again.

At the time when MK4 was released in the arcades, I had lost interest in videogames in general, but once I saw it I was hooked. The MK3, UMK3, and MKT didn't interest me that much, it was the fall of MK for me. MK4 had that spark slowly recovering it's place in the industry. It definitely was more like MK1 and 2 with it's seriousness, music, fast paced fighting and fatalities were some of the best in the series.

Personally I love fast paced fighting, and that's mainly why I liked MK4 alot. You could also create custom combos if you're good.

The graphics were actually kinda cool too. The backgrounds looked very nice like the Elder Gods face arena, Reptile's Lair, Prison, etc. There was some background interactivity where you could through a boulder at your opponent for more damage, but it was rather cheap. Also it was the first MK game to introduce weapons. Nothing to rave about, but still was nice if you think about it.

The new characters were alright. I mainly liked Quan Chi out of all of them. He was just such a badass character to use and he looked like a freak. When I saw his leg beat fatality, he became one of my favorites.

MK4 didn't have any infinites because they implemented the laughable band aid mechanic" maximum damage." In my book MK4 is the worst MK to date. every character lacked individuality. and personality even more so than they do now due to painfully universal move sets.

I liked MK4's MK2-ish gameplay tone, you are technically on your own in the fight, no long combos, no infinites, Sub Zero was way weaker when hitting a frozen opponent (so you couldn't misuse its moves), Goro is fucking hard to beat, Tanya and Sonya, like Kitana and Mileena in MK2, are invincible pain in ass when played by CPU.

Graphics didn't matter much, ok, they could have been done way better, but, sincerelly, were you as hypnotised with MKDA's graphics as you were with, e.g. MK3's ? I wasn't.

Bland personalities are always present and you could never answer exactly why and by which standard are some characters chosen to feel insipid. For example, in Shinnok's army, Reiko is as eminent as Quan Chi: the first is a powerful general, and the latter is the arch-sorcerer. Yet, Reiko's story doesn't evolve almost a bit in comparison to Quan Chi's. Who are Reiko's enemies from the past? With whom does Reiko plan to ally in order to overthrow Shao Kahn? DOES Reiko actually mean to overthrow Kahn at all? See, when you have a character as unfinished, copycat-moved and obscure (tastelessly obscure, sadly) as that, and MK4 is full of such, it means the team didn't really care to put effort into it.

every single character in mk4 has at least 1 infinite. there are also so called "maximum damage infinites". i suggest you to watch these vids that me and my friends did not so long ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fev06S17mBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSUZALE56xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYU7OrStxQM

also mk4 has the best gameplay after umk3. of course that applies to the arcade version and mkgold (exluding the new characters).

MK4 was decent. Not too bad, I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than MKDA,MKD and MKA. MKgold was the best though, it was glitchy as hell. The only thing is that Shinnok was the worst fuckin boss ever(next to the Deadly Alliance), he was a terrible follow up to Shao Kahn.

It was probably my least favorite in the MK games (not counting Special forces and Shaolin Monks) But it was decent and a pretty good game over all. Of course the graphics seems ridiculously cruddy compared to now but that's what it was back then. But it certainly isn't a failure.

I don't think "failure" is the right word. I did actually buy the game recently when I saw it cheap at a sale, and played it for a bit. There's nothing too offensive about it. The story could have been very cool with a bit more focus, and if they gave the game a few tweaks (Shinnok basically being Shang Tsung was a horrible, horrible decision), then it could have been very good.

The feeling and palette of the game made me pretty sick, which is what I guess the MK Team goes for. All the new characters were really unestablished, though, and it felt so random in its existence, I guess. It wouldn't have been the cast I'd have used for a sequel.

I don ́t think so. When you want to see a real failure than look at the game Mortal Kombat Special Forces Staring Jax! This was a big failure and has brought MK comedy like. So you can ́t take Mortal Kombat seriously...

I like my TOASTY!! move and i remember with Scorpion

B,F,F,B+BLOCK or so....

Yes MK4 was a good game and the first "Mortal Kombat" game in 3D but Midway ́s first fighting game in 3D was another...

Do you remember Wargods???

I also liked and enjoyed MK4 a lot. I remember it did really well in the arcades (the line to the game was like never before seen) so I don't think it can be considered a failure.

Some of the good points that still stand in my memory are:

- MK4 made the switch to 3D for the first time, while still keeping the feeling and fast gameplay of the basic MKs (which i liked a lot). It really felt like the trusty MK that we all loved. The 3D graphics looked pretty good for that time aswell.

- MK4 has a pretty deep story. Now i can already hear some people pointing otherwise, but you have to understand that MK Mythologies:Sub Zero is a prelude of the MK4 story (just like the Konquest game with Shujinko is part of MK Deception) as it introduced Quan Chi, Shinnok and the amulet. The game had bios (you can't say that about all MK games) and the endings were full motion videos (and some of them were really good like the Kitana/Mileena and Sonya/Jax/Jarek alternate endings.

- The game was dark as hell. The contine/game-over screen is a great example. Watching some of the classic fatalities in 3D actually made them more shocking (such as the jax arm rip).

- MK4 had good new concepts such as the weapon system (which could be used against you) and bonebreaker moves (which looked really cool and shocking at that time. I wish it was still there so I could alternate between a throw or a cool bonebreaking move).

I admit that there also were some bad points in the game (some camera bugs, an end boss that looked incomplete and the inclusion of a character named Jarek that looked like a copy of Kano). But the good points outweigh the bad points by far (the new characters like Fujin and Reiko were really cool. As was the new evolution of Reptile). 1997 (12 years ago!) was all MK4 for me.

I loved MK4. MK Gold was great too. I wish they would release MK Gold on Xbox Live or the PSN. The fatalities were old school brutal. The gameplay was classical. Sure it had some flaws but they were entering 3D for the first time they had to mess up something. I think they never should have ditched the old control scheme either. Now you have it all messed up where someones attack 1 does a kick and someone elses does a punch. There is no standard anymore. They could do SO MUCH more with the old controls.

Quan Chi's leg rip and beatdown FTW.

will someone sell the game to me?

MK4 was one of the most dark and brutal MK games of all, i think that's why i liked it so much! Reptiles alt. costume was badass hehe
and i remember beatin teh living crap outta everyone at the arcade w/ Reiko!

I also really liked MK Gold, the character roster was close to perfect (in my opinion)

It wasn't suppose to be fun it was there because the game was broken and they needed it there to eliminate infinite combos.

The only ones I didn't enjoy were Special Forces and Shaolin Monks. I actually though Mythologies: SubZero was decent. I thought MK Gold was one of the greatest, aswell as 4. My favorite is actually a tie between Trilogy and UMK3.

i agree with u taker

Same.

And even then, the MD system was broken within itself. It was supposed to cap combos once they hit around 40%, but the final hit of the combo would still do full damage.

For instance, say you get a combo up to 39%...you could still do a powerful move to cap it off and would get full damage out of it even if you get knocked back from the MD.

in my book it's the best. i mastered this game by becoming my country's best and still think i got it. i will welcome a challenge any day

no for me it wasn't in fact it was my favorite mk to date. i thought the transition was flawless. had some great new characters like quan chi, reiko and fujin. i played the shit out of mk4 at arcades. i used to dominate most people only a few were actually a challenge. i mostly used reptile and scorpion. the speed was great and the combos were pretty easy. actually i'm thinking of buying mk4 for n64 used on amazon real soon. i used to play it at an arcade called funzone but they closed it down which sucks.

it also had some arenas that i fell in love with like reptiles lair and the prison stage. the run was back and the ability to throw a weapon was awsome. the codes were interesting to see like raining blood and 1 button fatality.

i played very competivly and actually earned some money at the arcades from my great skills. the other game which i was pretty good with was mk2 which is funny because if you count by evens mk2 and mk4 were my favorite of the series. plus the new characters nowadays suck like blaze, kenshi, hsu hao, bo rai cho and many other joke characters. that's just my opinions.

MK4 is what got me into Mortal Kombat. My older brother used to have it for the PSX I remember going holy shit when I first seen a fatality in that gamem and I was 8 at the time. I remember when my older brother would play through the game as Liu Kang, by the time he would reach Goro, it would be something like this.

A: Goro beats the shit out of him.(This happens very often)
B: My older brother beats Goro, with nearly his life is gone.

I remember pissing myself at Goro, I never wanted to fight him. Later, my dad didn't want me to play it because I my older brother had to scare me by telling me that Goro did a fatality were he cooked Liu Kang inside an oven.

Yeah, I've given it some more thought. It definitely grows on you after time, I guess. I remember when it came out when I was younger, and it was just so different to MK3 that it kind of scared me off. I mean, a lot of the characters were different, while retaining some themes of older, more loved, characters. I didn't really know what had happened to my favourites.

If given more time and freedom, I think it could have been, ultimately, a classic, and the series wouldn't have needed the reboot that Deadly Alliance provided.

Failure??? I don't think so, plz visit here:

http://www.mortalkombatblackout.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7875

I used to think the same, but history tells of a lot more.

MK4 it's a great game and a great MK...

honestly yes i believe so. The thing that cought me off guard were the graphics. I liked the overall cheesy kindov feel with the others. And the darkness. Also coming from a mk2 fan the fatalities were not that great.