The Mortal Kombat series has
been on a steady decline ever since MK 3. The Dreamcast version takes the
controversial gameplay of Mortal Kombat 4, plops in a few new characters, but
still dive-bombs as an overall package. With the immense processing power of the Dreamcast, games should look a lot better than this. Blurry textures and dark backgrounds ruin any attempt at creating atmosphere. The animation also hasn't transitioned well into 3-D either, but the frame rate is steady and quite fast. The audio side offers some hilarious screams of pain, especially during Quan Chi's leg-rip fatality, probably the only reason to keep this game around.
Performing moves is a chore partly thanks to the unresponsive controls. Special moves take numerous presses to pull off, but hardly any of them will register. The combo system also suffers the same fate. The game comes down to who can press buttons faster....err...who can make them respond first. If not, it's whoever spent more time studying a strategy guide. It tries a little bit to play like the earlier classics in this series (even bringing back fan favorite characters). This combo system just isn't fun.
The added world "Gold" to the title doesn't mean a whole lot. While it's nice to see personal favorites like Baraka back in action, it's not worth the effort. There is some decent music, but the same basic gameplay from this games precursor has hardly been worked on. It's a definite disappointment and another step down for this series..
