Mortal Kombat 4 (1997) was the last game in the Mortal Kombat series to have an arcade version. It was updated into Mortal Kombat Gold a year later for the Sega Dreamcast. MK Gold's story overrides MK4's. It is one of the few 3D fighting games to have been described as having "2D gameplay." Essentially, the major gameplay difference between 2D and 3D fighting games of the time, was that up to that point all 3D fighting games had attempted to somewhat simulate realistic martial arts.
One of the reasons for this was to take advantage of the fluid keyframed and motion captured animation that was now possible using 3D models. For example, in Virtua Fighter, a real martial artist was filmed performing the moves and this movement was imposed on the 3D model in the game. Thus, while a punch in a 2D game might be a rapidly responding move with two frames of animation, a punch in a 3D game might have a delay between when the button was pressed and when the opponent was hit, owing to the realistic animation.
Codes
Cheat Codes Press Down (on choose destiny screen) - Fewer Credits
Press Up (on choose destiny screen) - More Credits
Hold Up and press Start (char. select screen) - Random Select
Passwords
Enter the following at the Vs. screen:
321-321 - Big Head Mode
020-020 - Blocking Disabled
000-033 - Computer Starts with 1/2 Life
000-707 - Computer Starts with 1/4 Life
688-422 - Dark Kombat
050-050 - Explosive Kombat
205-205 - Fight vs. Reptile
010-010 - Max Damage Disabled
110-110 - Max Damage/Throw Disabled
555-555 - Multiple Weapons
987-123 - No Power Bars
012-012 - Noob Saibot Mode
123-123 - One Hit KOs
192-234 - Play as Reptile
033-000 - Player 1 Starts with 1/2 Life
707-000 - Player 1 Starts with 1/4 Life
987-666 - Programmer Message
123-926 - Programmer Message #2
985-125 - Psycho Kombat
222-222 - Random Weapon
333-333 - Randper Kombat
666-666 - Silent Kombat
444-444 - Start with Weapons Drawn
460-460 - Switcheroo
100-100 - Throwing Disabled
001-001 - Unlimited Run
002-002 - Weapons won't be dropped
Here's a video compilation of the fatalities you can perform in this GameBoy Color title:
This game would be better if it included 6 more characters. 3 on each side that is blank. First, Sonya and Sektor. Cyrax, Kai, Kitana, and Mileena. Some of them are from MKGold.