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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. To order Mortal Kombat 4, click on the button
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