Mortal Kombat 4, the often-forgotten middle child of the long-running fighting game franchise, is now available to play on modern PCs. Online game store Good Old Games (GOG) put the game on their site earlier this week for an absolute steal of a price, but new fans may find it lacking compared to modern entries in the series.
Released for the arcade back in 1997 and later ported to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and PC the following year, Mortal Kombat 4’s plot depicts the fallen Elder God Shinnok returning from his thousand-year banishment in the NetherRealm, forcing resident thunder god Raiden to enlist the help of Earthrealm’s heroes to stop him from enacting his revenge on all of existence. The game represents Mortal Kombat’s transition to 3D graphics as the series went on, featuring a Tekken-style 3D movement plane and introducing usable weapons and interactive backgrounds to the franchise’s trademark use of bloody Fatality finishing moves.
Gamespot reports that Mortal Kombat 4 is now available on GOG.com, a website where people can purchase and download games for their PCs. It has been optimized for modern computers, costs a mere $5.99, and is released free of DRM (Digital Rights Management) restrictions, just like all titles available on the site. This version has also added widescreen support and is compatible with Xbox 360 controllers.
While the first three games in the Mortal Kombat series have seen numerous re-releases in the form of the 2011 Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection and Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition in 2006, Mortal Kombat 4 has only been updated once for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999’s Mortal Kombat Gold. While the game received reasonable praise at the time of its release, Mortal Kombat 4 has been since viewed by the fanbase as something of a black sheep in the series, with many citing its rough-by-modern-standards PS1-era graphics (which were already downgraded from the arcade version) and primitive 3D movement as things that have not stood the test of time compared to other entries in the long-running Mortal Kombat series.
With both this development and the upcoming release of the Final Fantasy VII Remake in April, it seems the year 1997 is making a bit of a comeback in the world of gaming. Still, Mortal Kombat 4 is an odd choice to be re-released given its less-than-beloved status, especially at a time when most players will soon be busy tearing through Mortal Kombat 11 as the new DLC character Spawn. Still, it could serve as a nostalgic look at how far the Mortal Kombat series has evolved over the years, especially since it’s available for a very low price. However, curious players will likely check it out for only a brief time before quickly returning to the more polished gameplay of later installments of the Mortal Kombat franchise.
