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: