The graphics and sound in Mortal Kombat 4 are much better than I had expected. The game is fast and furious, and looks only slightly less appealing than the Nintendo 64 version, while the PSX wins the round for sound and music. This is an extremely good port of a monster of an arcade game.

Basically, you move towards your opponent and either kick or punch him or her. And if you win, you get the chance to do a “Fatality.” Oh, wait, this is Mortal Kombat 4 -- Mortal Kombat breaks the 2D barrier! You can now move “in” and “out” of the screen in full 3D movement. The game plays very similar to Mortal Kombat 3 (the Run button is still there). Thankfully the “Dial-A-Combo” system has been toned down, but yet it still remains. (Midway, get rid of the cheesy combo systems and I’ll be your best friend.) Fatalities are back, without the lame as hell “Blow-up-the-Guy-and-See-Six-Heads-and-14-Arms-in-Glorious-Black-and-White” ‘cuz they were kicked to the curb to make room for some hardcore, gory FATALITIES. That’s right, Fatalities. No “Friendships,” “Babealaties,” “Animalities,” or crap like that. You win, you kill. Simplicity in its savageness.

There are multiple difficulty levels in MK4 to test the skills of any level player. You can chooses various levels of difficulty from the Options screen, plus you can further tailor the game difficulty with different “towers” of Kombat, which determines how many matches you will fight before fighting the Bosses.

If you’ve played Mortal Kombat before, the game play for MK4 is fundamentally the same (High Punch, Low Punch, High Kick, Low Kick, Run, Block) with a few noticeable additions. First, as stated before, the game is now in 3D, which allows you to step in or out of the screen to dodge attacks or projectiles. Also new to this version is the introduction of weapons -- each character also has a weapon that he or she can pull out and use for massive damage, but be warned -- your weapon can be knocked from your hands and used against you.