Mortal Kombat 4

As a big fan of the Mortal Kombat series, no matter how poor the writing can get, I really enjoy the fact that this is purchasable here. I do wish though that this was the Dreamcast version, which went under the name of "Mortal Kombat: Gold" MK Gold being an experience which gave a few extra arenas, a few extra classic characters made it back in, and allowed you to choose your characters weapons prior to starting a match. This is nowhere to be found on modern hardware aside through emulation, which I'd rather be able to purchase a genuine port. Aside from getting that out of the way, let's talk about how this particular game functions: The gameplay is jank and stiff. Which let's be real, every single MK game is jank and stiff but once you get used to the unique way the fighting mechanics flow within that then it's always a blast. Like many 3D fighters in this series, there is a way to step closer or farther away from the camera but instead of being able to do it with ease you must hold a button down prior to pushing up or down. I'm not particularly sure if this is something that may sour you on the 3D space being used here, but it can be a little bit better than the ps2/GC/OGXB era of titles seeing as you may step far or close when just trying to duck, jump, or input for attacks. Aside from this key difference, it is mostly identical to those games. I think the biggest draw to this game is the cheesy 3D rendered Tower finishes, while every other title used a player card with some written bio text. Plus, it brought quite a few characters that became huge fan favorites like Quan Chi. However, on the flipside of that there are a few character choices that are forgettable. Like Kai, who has not returned in any MK game aside from the 1 title that boasted having every character (That being MK Armageddon). If you've played the Nether Realm Studio take on MK4, which was MKX, but never played this then no matter what I highly suggest giving this a spin for a laugh

This game is an absolute classic and the last good MK game before its decline (to my opinion). I honestly very much appreciate the out of the box controller support. What I don't understand though is why is the experience not seamless. Why is still some effort required from me? FYI you have to run this game with compatibility settings (all but admin) and also you have to change Vulcan to DirectX in nglide_config.exe (game folder) to even make it to run. Also the keyboard mapping (without the gamepad) are awful. Like up is Q, down is Z, right is S and left is A. Completely unintuitive. So I do not consider this a fully functional product. Also, before you comment here that "everyone has a different machine and a different operating system", I realize that, but making the Windows 10 version of the game running in compatibility mode OUT OF THE BOX and setting the nglide correctly upfront should not be a big deal for those lads and the stuff I mentioned applies universally to ALL Windows 10 machines with DirectX. Nevertheless, even though this is yet another pretty problematic "port", I still do love the game and SOME effort made by the GoG team. Keep it going. Just try harder next time, please.

However, I still needed some software to map controls for my ps4 controller, like the joy2key. I still would rather to have Mortal Kombat 4 Gold

I appreciate that GOG has made an effort to prserve the Mortal Kombat 4 PC port (too bad Nintendo and Sony nver did that, not even with MK Trilogy). But the gameplay, well, it's kind of returning to MK1 or 2, but with better graphics and on 3D. THe plot is fine, even the ending videos when you beat Shinnok, but it could have had more characters (even Gold lacks many). Anyway, thank you, GOG. When will we get Deadly Alliance here?

First of all, I'm a classic game lover, so I have MK4 on PS1. That said, this version is pretty solid, but it has issues with controllers being recognized (come on, I don't want to play my fighting game with a keyboard...) and FMVs have forced scanlines that make them look darker than they should be. Other than that, pretty solid version, although with a confusing configuration system. If you have the PS1 version, there's nothing to see here, that one is the way superior one, but if you don't and want a fun, simple, flawed but charging, fighting game, get it.