Digital storefront GOG.com does a lot of good work for video game preservation. The company typically finds long lost classics (such as Blade Runner) and goes through all the legal hell to make them available for modern audiences. Other times, it releases garbage like Mortal Kombat 4.

In all seriousness, the fourth installment of the Mortal Kombat series is now available for purchase on GOG. Widely considered the worst game in the series, many are unaware that a PC port even existed. I happened to own it back in the day and can tell you that it is…perfectly fine. It surprisingly didn’t run like trash, apart from the game just being bad.

One has to remember the era in which Mortal Kombat 4 released. While Capcom and SNK stuck to their guns and continued pushing on with 2D sprite-based games, most companies were jumping into 3D development. With the PS1 and N64 proving popular, it was almost a death sentence to not create 3D versions of past favorites. Mortal Kombat just happened to completely bungle the landing.

The re-release of this title is no knock against GOG. Regardless of the actual quality of a game, every title should be available in some form for gamers to try. It’s always important to remember the failures of the past so we can learn from their mistakes. If Mortal Kombat 4 was completely gone, we might fail to realize how good we currently have it with Mortal Kombat 11.

Should you buy this, though? If you just absolutely have to own every Mortal Kombat game, I guess it isn’t the worst use of money. The fighter is available for $5.99 through GOG’s website and is DRM free. That’s always a nice bonus for a digital game that could end up being delisted eventually. That it even runs on modern operating systems is also a miracle unto itself.

Still, this is more a curio of a long-forgotten era more than anything. Midway Games would eventually make a proper 3D Mortal Kombat title and 4 would become a distant memory to fans. At least after Midway shut down, MK returned to its former glory in style.

Source: GOG, YouTube

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