Mortal Kombat 4

I almost hate to say it, because the lack of any real innovation is shocking, but Mortal Kombat 4 is a total blast and I'd highly recommend it to any Nintendo 64 owner. The 3-D visuals are pretty, the sound is completely obnoxious (which is a good thing), the control is quick and for the most part painless, but best of all, the campiness of the fights in MK4 will keep you laughing and smiling for hours. This ain't no Tekken 3, kids, but it's as guilty a pleasure as this gamer's ever played.

KRAZY KOMBATANTS

The background story for the game is as cheesy as usual. We find out that thousands of years in the past, our favourite lightning bolt dude, Raiden, in a battle with MK4's chief baddie, Shinnock, was responsible for slaying an entire civilization. Bummer.

Raiden finally beats Shinnock but the resultant battle sent the Earth into "centuries of darkness" (what, there were no arcades?). After the scrap, Shinnock ended up spending his days in a cheery little place known as the Netherealm. For some unexplained reason, after the Mortal Kombat kharacters finally defeated Shao Khan (this happened in MK3, I'm assuming), Shinnok was able to free himself from the Netherealm. Of course his first plan was to set upon the Earth to form a new Mortal Kombat tournament and hopefully bring oodles of cash to our pals Ed Boon, John Tobias and the fine folks at Midway.

As in all iterations of Mortal Kombat, a whole host of old characters (erm, kharacters) have returned, while a small crop of new fighters are making their collective first appearance. MK vets like Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Raiden, Jax, Reptile and Goro (why does it feel like I'm singing a song here?) are joined by the immediately playable Shinnock and his cool looking crony, Quan Chi. Also mixed up in all of this nonsense are:

Fujin, the Wind God (to Raiden's God of Thunder, natch)
Jarek, an evil comrade of MK-oldie, Kano
Kai, the young apprentice warrior, training under Liu Kang
Reiko, a one time general in Shinnock's army, now a deadly expert with a fist full of throwing stars
Tanya, this is the hapless warrior who unwittingly unleashes Shinnock on her own civilization.
By my calculations, that makes 16 fighters, 15 of which are playable at the gate. And by any measure, that's a good assortment to start with. Chances are good, however, that this Mortal Kombat, like all the others, has months and months of secrets left for you to uncover.

QUALITY CONTROL?

One thing that has definitely not changed along MK's path to three dimensions is the confined control of the fighters. Although, for this iteration of Mortal Kombat, you not only get your punches, kicks, block and run buttons, you also get to side step in and out of the fighting plane. Apart from the fact that you can side step projectiles now, this doesn't really change things all that much because the fighting is still locked into that familiar 2-D side to side perspective. In case anyone's worried; yes, you can still perform all sorts of krazy kombos and the special moves should come very quickly to anyone who's played a MK game before (particularly because the returning characters sport move lists that haven't changed at all). And gosh darn it all, if this game ain't as fast as they come.

However, and this has been true for all the Mortal Kombats, the control, and the animation that correlates to it, still doesn't feel as natural, smooth or intuitive as the control you'll find in other 2-D and 3-D fighters. You can get comfortable with the D-pad movements (don't play with the analog thumbstick, you'll only hurt yourself) and you will be able to pull off lots of repetitive jump kicks and spectacularly bloody rabbit punches to the face. But for some reason, you never get that sense that your motions are linked to each other or that your character's animations have any organic flow.

When you compare the animation and control in Mortal Kombat 4 to that of Tekken 3 or Virtua Fighter 3, it's as if you were watching the same Kung Fu movie only one came back with a bunch of frames missing (maybe it was edited by Sam Raimi?). This being said, it should also be stated that this kind of unrealistic control and animation does give (and always has given) Mortal Kombat 4 a tangible goofiness that makes the experience of playing the game even more enjoyable.

One new addition to this game, that still maintains that special MK-brand of goofiness, is the introduction of weapons. Not only do the characters seemingly pull their enormous clubs and blades out of thin air (or their front pockets) but also the way in which these tools of destruction are used will often force you to double over in laughter. The most amusing use of the weapons comes from the baseball-style hits that send your opponents flying straight towards you and slamming straight, Wil E. Coyote style, into the camera. What's great about the weapons is that they are fully interchangeable. Although it's almost impossible to find enough time to use these devices, it's comforting to know that they're there.

KILLER POLYGONS

The visuals for Mortal Kombat 4 are just short of spectacular. Overall, the N64 version is the best looking MK 4 of the bunch (the accelerated PC version comes awfully close, though) but compared to other 3-D fighting fare on other systems this looker still ends up taking second place.

The polygonally constructed fighter models are convincingly articulated and nicely animated. The special moves and fireball projectiles look amazing. It is the colored lighting in this cart that really knocks my socks off, however. The flames in certain backgrounds are simply spellbinding.

If all that we had to judge our games by was the quality of the visual presentation, Mortal Kombat 4 would fare very well. This is the sharpest looking N64 fighter by far (not saying much) and it's definitely pretty enough to bring a lot of arcade-heads home. The only real flaws in the look of the game come in the intro and extro movies. Tired animation and incredibly stilted dialog didn't have to be included in the package but apparently someone at Midway deemed it necessary. Also, to be honest, I think the NIS (non-interactive screens) could have been a lot sharper. These are the same set up and select graphics we've been looking at for years now! C'mon guys, get a little more creative with the introductory elements.

SLICING SOUNDS

I was taken aback by the level of quality in the audio presentation. Other Midway N64 soundtracks have been muffled, muted or downright annoying but Mortal Kombat 4 sings. Slashes, punches and fireball zaps all come through with crystal clear clarity. The gushy blood sounds will make you squirm and giggle. The monstrous growls and yelps of opponents will force you to launch into a series of impressions. And the gothic-gory-oh-so-sombre tones of the MK4 music will bounce off your walls delightfully. As a complete sonic package, this is one satisfying experience. Kudos to the audio team.

THUMB CANDY

Mortal Kombat 4 is not a game of limitless depth, despite what the hype will tell you about the hidden secrets in the game. Once you take the time to learn a few fatality moves, you'll probably already be on your downward spiral towards boredom with this title.

The thing about MK4, as has been the case with most of the previous home incarnations (the SNES version of MK3 is still my fave), is that it's a great game to sink back into every time you and your pals get together for some quick and fun gaming action. It doesn't take incredible talent to pick up and play this scrapper and it offers more than enough flash to keep you glued to the set for hours at a time. This series of games represents the prototypical "just one more match" collection. In the end, Mortal Kombat 4, in spite of its move to 3-D, is exactly what you'd expect, good klean fun.

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