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Review: Mortal Kombat 4 |
As you all know Mortal Kombat 4 is coming to N64 on June 24th. Well, start saving your money because this is the fighter to get this year! Forget all you’ve ever heard about cartridge memory limitations, this game must have used every single bit of the N64 cart.
If you liked the arcade version you’ll definitely enjoy this home version. And if you didn’t like the arcade MK4, give this one a try. It has quicker, more responsive gameplay, it has Goro, Meat, and Noob. And for some reason the 3D backgrounds feel smoother and more realistic than the arcade’s pixel infested and choppy backgrounds.
Gameplay wise, MK4 offers everything the arcade offered minus the glitches. Problems like getting stuck inside walls and slowdown are almost totally removed. The game also moves much quicker, which in my opinion gives the game an added feel of tension which is sorely lacking in the arcade rev.
All the characters from the arcade are included, plus Goro and Noob (you should see his new alternate costume). Other new features include a new snow level, a Big Head Kombat Kode, and a third costume for most characters. Reptile’s third costume is a cool looking neon greenish Ninja costume.
Anyhow, everything is outstanding. The music and sounds are arcade perfect. The explosions and lighting effects are excellent as well. What more can I say? Everything made it into this cartridge, even the arcade’s opening intro scene with Raiden is still there. I still wonder how they managed to fit all that voice for everybody’s endings and still have room to fit everything the arcade had plus more.
Im not going to get more specific. You have all played Mortal Kombat at least once, so you all know the story and basic gameplay. Overall I feel that MK4 has dethroned KI Gold as the best fighter on the Nintendo 64. It has a polished clean feel of perfection that Fighters Destiny, Mace and Bio Freaks didn’t offer. I’ll even go as far as saying that its the best arcade port ever, even beyond Tekken 3. The reason? Because Tekken is on a CD, it’s easier to throw in some nice video and some new features in there. But Mk4 is on cartridge and given the limitations I feel the programmers worked overtime to not only make an arcade perfect port, but to fix the problems with the arcade rev. and give the players what they actually wanted. The only problem I found was how redundant the gameplay was. It’s basically MK2 in 3D. But oh well, I can’t ask for everything.
- Critical Breakdown
