| Mortal Kombat Gold | |
|---|---|
 North American box art | |
| Developer | Eurocom |
| Publisher | Midway Home Entertainment |
| Director | Ed Boon |
| Series | Mortal Kombat |
| Platform | Dreamcast |
| Release | |
| Genre | Fighting |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Mortal Kombat Gold is a 1999fighting game developed byEurocom and published byMidway Home Entertainment as alaunch title for theDreamcast. It is an updated version of 1997'sMortal Kombat 4, and was the firstMortal Kombat game to appear on asixth-generation platform, as well as the only game in the series to be released for the Dreamcast. Critical reaction was mostly average due to the graphics being inferior to the arcade version, the weapons deemed boring or useless, and game-breaking bugs and glitches.
Mortal Kombat Gold's gameplay is largely based onMortal Kombat 4 and includes several additional characters and stages not seen inMortal Kombat 4, as well as a new weapon selection mechanism. New stages include Church, Ladder, Netherrealm, and Soul Chamber.
Mortal Kombat Gold features the same character roster asMortal Kombat 4, which includesScorpion,Jax Briggs,Sonya Blade,Quan Chi,Sub-Zero,Reiko,Jarek,Raiden,Tanya,Liu Kang,Kai,Reptile,Fujin,Shinnok,Johnny Cage, sub-bossGoro, and the secret charactersNoob Saibot andMeat. In addition,Gold also features six additional characters,Kitana,Cyrax,Mileena,Kung Lao,Baraka and a secret characterSektor, who were not featured in any version ofMortal Kombat 4 but had been featured in previous installments of the franchise.
Although the game's storyline is much identical to that ofMortal Kombat 4, the official strategy guide for the game misprinted unused bios for the six new returning characters, causing some confusion among fans.[2]
An additional character namedBelokk was planned for the game, but was omitted from the finished version due to time constraints.[3][4][5] However, Eurocom accidentally sent information about the character toGame Informer, and as a result, six screenshots of him were released to the public, sparking rumors about him being actually accessible somehow.[citation needed]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding missing information.(September 2025) |
The game was showcased atE3 1999.[6]
About a month after the initial launch, a revised version of the game was released, which intended to address some of its most severe issues.[7] This version fixed the most severe bugs and glitches in the game and addedVMU memory card support, which allowed the save feature to function properly. This version was released on a red tinted disc, as opposed to the original's gold tint, and was easily identified by a green "Hot! New!" logo on the instruction manual's cover.[8]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | 55%[9] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRevolution | D |
| GameSpot | 5/10 |
| IGN | 6.3/10 |
| Next Generation | 2/5 |
Mortal Kombat Gold received an averaged review score of only 55% atGameRankings.[9] Despite having the graphics that were the most faithful to the arcade version of all the home versions ofMortal Kombat 4,Game Revolution rated it a D and commented that "the graphics are inexcusably horrible" and "it's quite a depressing let-down onSega's128-bit masterpiece, especially when compared toSoulcalibur." The weapons that characters can use during the game were called "dull and uninteresting", often having little relation to the characters, and being "either a sword, axe, or club".[10]IGN was less negative toward the game, awarding it a 6.3 out of 10, but was particularly critical regarding the weapon system: "Readying your weapon is a slow process in which one can be hit any number of times during the attempt". AlthoughIGN commented on the improvements from previousMortal Kombat games, the lack of depth was considered inexcusable.[11]Jeff Gerstmann ofGameSpot, who gave the game a score of 5.0/10, wrote that "sitting down and playingMK Gold almost feels like aretrogaming experience - you really feel as though you've pulled out some old game that you haven't played in years - and it hasn't aged gracefully."[12] According to a retrospective byIGN, "the same publications that had once praised it on Nintendo 64 were happy to thrash it as a shallow and campy relic of a past age. Releasing besideSoulcalibur certainly didn't help."[13]
Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game forNext Generation, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "Mortal Kombat Gold goes a long way towards confirming that this series peaked withMK2, and it's been in steady decline ever since."[14]
Conversely, Brazilian magazineSuperGamePower gave the game 4.5 out 5, regarding the graphics as superior to anything came up by Ed Boon and John Tobias on console or arcade. The magazine also recommends the game to fight fans, particularly those who favor the Mortal Kombat series.[15]
| Video games |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Films |
| ||||||
| Other media |
| ||||||
| Characters | |||||||
| Related | |||||||
