It was later ported to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC, and Game Boy Color the following year, as well as an updated version titled Mortal Kombat Gold released exclusively for the Dreamcast.

The gameplay system in Mortal Kombat 4 is similar to that of the previous games; one of the most notable additions is the use of weapons and objects during fights.

The storyline chronicles the attack from the corrupted Elder God Shinnok against his former comrades who trapped him in the Netherealm many years prior to the beginning of the series.

Co-creator Ed Boon stated that the staff wanted to make Mortal Kombat 4 more violent than its predecessors, removing the comical finishing moves featured in them.

Mortal Kombat 4 is played in a similar way to the previous titles from the series; the run button and combos are still used, and despite the 3D graphics, characters are restricted to a 2D path except for sidestepping.

Thousands of years before the setting of the first game, Shinnok, one of the Elder Gods who control the six realms in the Mortal Kombat universe, attempted to become the conqueror of them all.

The thunder god Raiden fought and defeated Shinnok in a war that spanned hundreds of years, sending him to the Netherrealm, where he would be trapped forever.

In order to stop Shinnok's menace, Raiden requests help from the Earthrealm warriors who saved the realms from Emperor Shao Kahn in previous titles.

[11] The Midway staff wanted to remove the comical elements from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, so they focused on making Fatalities.

As Ed Boon was skeptical about the quality of the result noting that the gameplay would be slower than previous titles, he decided to hand-animate frames with timings in a similar fashion to Street Fighter EX.

[19] The team opted to use an EPROM instead of a hard drive for the arcade hardware, due to the lower cost, and because it would allow the fast access time needed for familiar Mortal Kombat features such as changing backgrounds in mid-fight.

While all the traits from the arcade mode were added to the home version, Eurocom had to reduce the polygon count due to the more limited resources of the Nintendo 64.

The game contains several additional characters (Baraka, Cyrax, Kitana, Mileena, Kung Lao and hidden Sektor) and stages, as well as a new weapon select mechanism.

The background music was replaced with repetitive songs that bore instrumentation befitting a Game Boy release, and the port does not contain any blood outside of the Fatality videos.

"[7] GamePro had other misgivings, noting that version 1.0 has a number of bugs, includes only a handful of fatalities, and controls less responsively than previous games in the series.

[43] They gave a more unreservedly positive review to version 2.0, stating that it added true 3D movement and corrected the control issues, though the camera still had occasional problems and certain moves were too hard to block.

[30][34] However, IGN mentioned that playing the PC port would become "stale" unless the player "had an extra pad and a friend"[35] and the Official UK PlayStation Magazine said that the game was "the same old stuff trotted out with a fresh coat of pixels.

[29][31][33] The game has received positive response due to the new 3D graphics, the improvement of combos, and how all the characters "are still as cheesy as ever" and because they still have their original movements with a few updates.

[24] In retrospective, GamesRadar criticized the endings for the Nintendo 64 version of the game using a compilation from them for an April Fools joke, labelling them as hilarious due to their poor quality.

[47] According to a summary in to the series' retrospective by IGN, "With interest in ultraviolence waning, 3D becoming commonplace, and the photorealism now gone, Mortal Kombat 4 was unable to replicate the success of its predecessors.