Mortal Kombat Gold was waited on since MK4 came out. Now that it is here, it is not quality, or what was expected of a MK game. This game shows only a small percentage of what Midway can do with these type games. The game is really MK4 with four new characters, movies, and stages added to it. Take Mileena for instance, she has Tanya's slam, bone cruncher, and her victory stance. Why? She should have her own bone cruncher and victory stance. The slam is okay but not great. Kitana too, she has Tanya's slam and Sonya's bone cruncher. If they gave Kitana her own victory stance, Mileena should have one also!

Is there major bugs in this game or what? It often goes silent when playing and here is something I need to know: when you enable the one button fatalities and pick on of the new fighters and press HP, why does the fighter do Kai's Torso Rip?!! This has happen to me twice, once with Mileena, and once with Baraka. Midway must not have tested this game properly, because this game has major kinks to be worked out. You or your parents pay $59.99 for a half-done game, and that's not cool.

This game was a major let down to MK fans. Ed Boon and John Tobias, how could you create a game that still seems like it's in the making? MK4 was not great either. Trilogy was the best, really. Mortal Kombat Five better not be half as bad as MKG because I will go off. And besides, a quality game can't be made in ten months!! Midway started sometime in February (well at least that is what read). Midway better get on the ball or MK fans around the world won't buy your sorry games. Out of all, I give this game a seven out of ten. You could say that this is a "half-baked" game. This game could have been so much better.

INTRO:
Well, if you are an MK fan like myself there is no doubt you were looking forward to this game as much as I! Now it is here and we can all dig into it & see if it lives up to it's previous titles in the series! So the following will tell you what I found as an avid MK player/fan! I hope this helps you out in your decision to purchase or rent this game! Read on!

STORYLINE:
Not much new here! A contest held to see who the best fighter is, but also the world's fate! The MK 4 series is the first for 3-D polygons instead of the 2-D Sprite based game. This is perfect for a powerful system such as the Dreamcast! In fact, it is better than the Arcade version! MK Gold is kind of like MK4.5! It has some new characters , backgrounds & options in addition to the standard MK4 game.

GAMEPLAY:
OK……Now we have some minor problems! First is the DC Controller! Not very fighter game friendly! I found the import controller works better! This is probably due to the fact that the D-Pad is lower than the U.S. pad! My hope is the Interact Fighter Pad will cure this minor flaw. Next is some of the fighter's moves do not work smoothly. Kitana's fan throw for instance. I can get it to work 3 out of 5 times! Some of the other character's moves seem a little touchy also! Shinnok's morph slows the game down because of CD loading… that just plain sucks! But in the end, most of the standard character's moves work well . The overall speed of the game is nice. Sidestepping is very difficult! PS. Midway had some "BUGS" in the game which were not to welcome. The system resets at times. The sound fades in & out at times! This WILL be remedied. Some discs are worse than others. I had minimal problems with mine.
RATING- 8.0

GRAPHICS:
This is where MK Gold shines! Very clean & crisp! The polygons are well defined & the backgrounds have depth to them! Explosions & sparks are very nicely done with impressive lighting effects. The Fatalities are done well & camera angles pan around nice & smooth! I did find that the camera sometimes panned out side the stage & blocked the view! Overall I was very impressed. Much nicer than Arcade graphics!
RATING-9.0

SOUND:
The sound for the most part is perfect! I found a few sound samples cut short but nothing serious. If you don't play it everyday, you might not even notice it. The bass & announcer's low demonic voice sound sweet pumped through an awesome sound system, as well as the screams & fatalities!
RATING-9.5

REPLAY VALUE:
What can I say….this is Mortal Kombat! It is a great 2 player game. Even in 1 player mode, the gratification of pummeling your opponent with some killer moves & kombos & then sending them to a gruesome death! YUMMY!!! (Remember…..this is just a game, it is NOT real!) *I felt obligated to say that!* There are lots of hidden stuff in the game which is nice. Some new added options are present, including a new "Choose your weapon system", which is nice. It is a game you can play for a quick rush, or practice & learn new moves & kombos.
RATING:10

FINAL THOUGHTS:
How do I sum up my favorite series fighting game? A little disappointed but still very satisfied! This is probably the best MK to date, console or arcade. The fact it has glitches, load time on morphs, touchy control, & freaky camera angles at times make me sigh. : ( But the tightness, eye candy visuals, threatening deep bass surround sound, & the overall feeling you get when everything comes together to make an outstanding show that engulfs you & your imagination puts a BIG smile on my face! : ) So I got to give it a thumbs up & love it more each day! Should you buy it? If you like the MK series, I would say "YES" you should not be disappointed! If you never played much MK, it is the best version out there. So there you have it! Rent or Buy, it is worth a look!

OVERALL RATING- 9

I have been playing Mortal Kombat since the beginning and like every other die-hard freak for Mortal Kombat I could not wait for it to be released. I couldn't even sleep the night before. I went out and bought it immediately. I was impressed the most by the enhancement in the graphic quality. If you just sit there and watch a character move, the 60 frames per second become quite evident. I was upset however with the new characters. Come on Midway! Only Baraka had a new throw. The rest were just rehashes of existing characters. The winning stances with the exception of Kitana's were also taken from existing characters. The rush for this game with a lack of care for the little details is obvious. I won't even go into the lame fatalities for the new characters. I mean did the programmers sit around all day and eat pizza and count on us to just accept whatever they felt like doing? The glitches anger me even more. Who were the idiotic game testers who overlooked such blatant flaws and allowed the game to be released? I am happy to hear about the disk replacement. The control is good but suffers from the poor Dreamcast pad design. I have tried three other controllers and they all are horrible. I always find myself coming back to the original Dreamcast controller. That is another whole matter altogether though. I was happy about the quick loading time. The new stages were nicely done and the enhancements to the existing stages were also well done. All in all it's the best MK version in my opinion. I know things will never be the same like the good old days of MK2 when the lines in the arcade were out the door and you had to fight just to get your quarter put up on the screen. Nevertheless Mortal Kombat 4 and MK Gold are very dear to my heart and are perhaps the greatest fighting games ever created. If you love Mortal Kombat and liked part 4, MK Gold will make you happy. I can't wait until MK5.

I thought Mk Gold would be a MAJOR upgrade from MK4, but no they had to only add 5 new characters. I wish they could've added more, but I guess they only had a certain amount of memory that was all taken up at the end. Where's Belokk? There's "?" behind Tanya at the character select screen. I wonder if he's in the game. Too bad there's no Gameshark. Overall, it's an ok game if you're a MK fan, but I would not recommend to just anybody. This was not a "wise" purchase for me. It would've been great if they gve it more replay value, like add a create-a-fighter mode. That would've been just 2 SWEET! I bet that they'll add in MK5..I hope so! Just think of the possibilties with MK5 having a create-a-fighter and edit mode. How about a stage editor and creator. But MK Gold is ok. I'll give a 7.3 rating.

When I got my DreamCast I knew what game I had to buy first. The old quarter habit itself Mortal Kombat. Now I liked Mortal Kombat 4, and I was good enough at it in the arcade to win more games than lose quarters. But it has been ages so I didn't remember any moves so thankfully old faithful Internent had the moves (apparently so did the cd booklet after I printed the list).

So I played the new characters first. At first I was happy with the new characters. They were just like the old days of Kitana and Mileena. But. Getting the moves to work correctly was a bitch, and unreliable. In practice mode you could watch yourself do the right move and see nothing happen! What is this!?!

Using the D-Pad itself seems outdated, and back and forth between Soul Calibur and MK Gold is confusing. The key setup is bad and you can change the setttings. Unfortunately, te save feature doesn't work so you have to reedit your config every time!

The characters endings are good storywise, but the animation is off on the new characters. I was glad to see Reiko have an ending to his story and what a good suprise! Then I noticed somethings about the in game animations of the game. The programmers used the same skeletons of other characters to create all of the new characters. With the exception of Cyrax and Sektor, most of the animations are rehashes in new skins. It's really sad.

Overall it's a fun game and I enjoy it becasue it's a version of MK for my console. The bugs in this game are unforgiveable, and I will think twice before I purchase the next MK game.

MK Gold looks great and it seems easy to pull off the moves. The new characters retain all the old moves, but their fatalities (Baraka) leave a little to be desired. Baraka's stab fatality looks like he lifts them without stabbing them! The other new characters have similar fatalities to others in the game. I do like the fact that you can turn on both 1-button fatalities and stage fatalities as opposed to only one at a time as was the case on N64. The game looks only slightly better in my opinion. It seems to me that even with all the extras in this version, the Dreamcast is capable of much more! The characters look too small! Another downside is the game is full of bugs! You can't save the endings after you've earned them and sometimes the game crashes the system or the sound goes out! I do like this game and I am a big MK fan. I've owned every MK game to date and if Midway releases a bug-free version of MK Gold, I'll probably buy it! I give MK Gold a 7 out of 10 overall. It was a nice job, but I feel they simply could have done better with this game!

MKG HAD THE ABILITY OF BEING THE BEST MK EVER. I AM A DIE HARD MK FREAK LIKE MANY OF YOU, I COUNTED THE DAYS TILL MKG WOULD COME TO MY HOUSE. WHEN I FIRST SAW IT I WAS IMPRESSED. THE GRAPHICS ARE FLAWLESS, THE GAME PLAY WAS AS EXPECTED, THE NEW FATALITIES WERE.... RIDICULOUS. ACCEPT FOR KUNG LAOS HAT THROW FATAL (ALA JAREK), I FOUND EVERY OTHER FATALITY TO BE A LET DOWN. WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND, THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL COMPANY THAT MADE MKG AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN A GAME IN THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES COME OUT WITH GLITCHES AND BUGS AS IF IT WERE NEVER TESTED. CONSTANT RESETS, LINES ON THE SCREEN, GORO MADE OF OTHER CHARACTERS. THE MAKERS KNOW MK FANS WILL BUY THEIR PRODUCT AND THEY WILL MAKE MONEY, SO ITS LIKE QUALITY HAS BECOME A LAST RESORT. RECYCLED FATALITIES??! ACCEPTABLE IF THE FATALITIES CHOOSES WERE THE BEST OF THE PAST. IN MY VIEW MKG CAN BE SUMMED UP IN ONE SENTENCE, "HURRY UP MK5." MEANING MKG WAS MORE DISAPPOINTMENT THAN SATISFACTION.