The month of July has been good to Warner Brothers, Midway,
and the number '4'; both the "Lethal Weapon" series of
action movies and the videogame fighting series "Mortal
Kombat" defied critical panning by critics and became the
top moneymakers of their respective media. Which pretty
much makes reviewing this game a waste of time, space and
writing skills when it is obvious that people want their
games and their movies without concern for originality. If
you despise and can't give a Forrest Gump (closest
equivalent to the word 'ass') about "MK4", you've moved on
with your life and completely ignored the hype surrounding
the late June release. If you're a fan of the series you
didn't wait for the reviewers and friends to tell you if
the game was any good or not, and you're probably in
possesion of it as you read this. So should I abandon my
intention of reviewing "MK4" and give into the fact that
the masses have spoken loud and clear? Why bother trying
to change anybody's mind when this game elicits such a
black or white response of acceptance or rejection? Well,
because I'm writing this on a Sunday morning, and there's
nothing else for me to do except watch "Meet the Press"
(yuck!) or "The Secret World of Alex Mack" reruns on
Nickelodeon (mmphh!); besides, the series' backstory and
characters are so well-known and popular that I don't even
have to do an irritating recap paragraph for those new to
the series...everybody loves "MK4", right? :-(
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B
Besides a lower-resolution and an increase in the
pixelation when a character is viewed up-close, this shiny
black CD is the Zeus-powered arcade version brought home
with (almost) no compromises. Although the game may
feature polygon characters and backgrounds, as well as an
ability to sidestep into the third-dimension via a button
tap, this is still at its core the same tight 2D engine
that has powered the series' six previous installments
("MK", "MK2", "MK3", "Ultimate MK", "MK Trilogy" and "MK
Mythologies"). Artisitc design still has more in common
with the sh**** "American Ninja" movie series (anyone out
there remember Michale Dudikoff? :-P) than with the
legendary Kung Fu movies of decades past; with some
weird-looking Ninjas (Scorpion, Sub-Zero), beefcake
muscle-heads (Jax, Johnny Cage), beauties (Sonya Blade is
back, yes!) and mutants (everyone else), "MK4" has enough
kabuki-like cheese characters to entertain fans of both the
videogame and the two blockbuster movies based on "MK".
Speaking of movies, there are short FMV cinemas throughout
the game that advance the so-called plot of the series a
little; they're laughably low on production values and
won't give the guys at Namco any worries, but for the
kitsch value it is an acceptable bonus not availbale on the
arcade or the N64 (which has to render them with in-game
graphics... the power of cartridges, ladies and gentlemen).
The king of N64 ports, Eurocom, has done a fine job of
squeezing as much graphical pizazz out of the aging PSX
hardware, and the results speak for themselves; from a
distance, it would be hard to tell the PSX/N64/arcade
version of "MK4" from one another (and I've seen all three
of them). The fatalities, a major hook of the series and
the reason this game earns an 'M' rating, are merely
upgrades of existing one's from previous versions of "MK"
but are now more disturbing and gory thanks to the added
dimension and the semi-interactive backgrounds;
uppercutting a character into a pit of spikes used to be
fun in "MK2", but not as fun as tossing someone into a
spinning fan and have their head hit the "camera" (kinda
like that "kid" in "South Park" that wondered off the bus
and was eaten by the Evil Monster...).
The frame-rate is a steady 45-60 frames-per-second, but the
choppy animation and stiff polygon models don't do the
speed of the game justice (and believe me when I tell you
that, at higher difficulty levels, this game is faster than
Monica Lewisnky on a coffee break, if you catch my
drift!). Since this is an arcade-exact port, blame the
original coders from Midway (Tobias and Co.) for handing
the Eurocom kids a less-than-stellar fighting engine that
doesn't come anywhere near "Tekken 3", "Dead or Alive" or
"Street Fighter EX+Alpha".
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B+
Hook this baby to your stereo system, and feel the
all-mighty bass rocking down the house (or in my case,
overpriced closet of a NYC Studio apartment). Thanks to
the wonderful use of CD, "MK4" features an array of
mediocre music and average sound effects that comes through
with a crystal-clear quality that allows the player to feel
every punch, every upper-cut, every corny one-liner from
the characters (can't beat that classic "Get over here!"
line), and every scream of pain/agony when someone's torso
is being ripped in half (check out Kang's awesome 'Dragon'
fatality, and hear the sweet sound of flesh being torn to
pieces).
By far the best feature in this game's sound department is
it's trademark announcer, a guy with a deep and evil voice
that makes your skin crawl when he utters classic "MK"
lines like "'_____' Wins!", or "Fatality!". No other
announcer on any other fighting game has earned the
recognition factor and respectability of the "MK"
announcer, and we must all bow down and hail this
all-mighty voice-over man, the Sean Connery of videogame
announcers in all genres (he makes all other announcers
come across as Alzheimer-crippled Roger Moore's :-P). ALL
HAIL THE "MK" ANNOUNCER, A.K.A. THE LEADER OF THE
REVOLUTION THAT WILL CRUSH THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
STA... OK, that's enough. He sounds real good though;
check him out (am I reaching too deep into the well?).
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: C
Gone are the cheesy and pointless dial-a-combos from "MK3"
and "Ultimate MK", replaced with a tighter engine that
harkens back to the physics of "Mortal Kombat 2", which
most gamers regard as the best "MK" in the series. The use
of the 3D background is more of a marketing gimmick than a
useful gameplay option, because sidestepping only buys you
a handful of milliseconds before the opponent (AI or second
player) adjusts to you movement and begins the pummeling.
A new feature in the game is the use of weapons, which can
be used by each character to hit and/or throw against the
opponent but can be turned against him/her if lost in the
heat of battle. In certain stages rocks will be littering
the floor, and can be picked by either character and tossed
to cause massive damage (sometimes more damage than a
cool-looking and flashy combo), but they are better used as
part of an attack pattern (throwing a rock and running
behind it guarantees that you will score some massive
damages). The AI is as cheap and troublesome as it has
always been in previous "MK" games, which ranges from
'Easy' (which is no cakewalk) to 'Are you f****** nuts?';
"MK4" is better enjoyed with fellow Midway junkies, as the
two-player mode can't get old when an unpredictable opponet
grabs the controller.
There are plenty of options for "MK" nuts to delight
themselves with: Arcade (duh!), 2-ON-2 Kombat (two players
pick two characters each), Endurance (how many times can
you defeat the CPU-controlled characters in a row?), VS.
Endurance (same as before, but with two players), Team
(your little team of thugs against a CPU/second player's
team), Tournament (4/8 player where characters go
head-to-head with the CPU or another player) and Practice
(polish your combo skills to your heart's delight). Still,
for all the bells and whistles of 32-bit technology, this
has got to be the last installment of the "MK" series that
gets released before they overhaul the series dramatically,
or quietly put it to rest and start with another one.
There is just not enough replayability, fun factor, skill,
incentive (how many people will play this game months from
now, after the hook of the bloody fatalities wears thin?),
or new stuff in "MK4" to justify its existence, or the need
for a fifth installment (no, this is not a "Lethal Weapon
4" review, although it reads like one).
OVERALL: C+
It's obvious that Midway will stick with the "Mortal
Kombat" franchise until it stops being profitable (which
won't happen anytime soon, because "MK4" is topping the
charts of both PSX and N64 sales in North America), or they
manage to get another big-time hit franchise in their
roster (like "NFL Blitz"). With no other successful
franchise in their fighting-genre roster ("War Gods" and
"Bio Freaks" tanked miserably, thank God -if he/she/it
exists-), Midway will really have to re-invent their wheel
to make "Mortal Kombat 5" stand-out from the "Tekken" and
"Virtua Fighter" franchises. Yeah right... and I will
invent a new delicious type of sandwich! A solid rental,
but a questionable purchase for non-"MK" heads.
