Mortal Kombat Gold

Mortal Kombat Gold is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series.

Mortal Kombat Gold follows Mortal Kombat Trilogy and precedes Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. It is an updated version of Mortal Kombat 4 and is identical in many ways. It was the first Mortal Kombat game to appear on a sixth-generation platform. It appeared exclusively on the Sega Dreamcast and not on the arcade or any other game system. All the fighters were the same from Mortal Kombat 4, with a few additional characters returning. The entire Mortal Kombat Gold game was created in less than one year, which may have added to the lack of detail and poor performance.

This game also includes new levels not seen in Mortal Kombat 4 and a new weapon select mechanism, but it remains largely unchanged from its predecessor. In some ways, due to loading times (even during battles, particularly in the case of Shinnok's impersonations) and glitch-laden effects, its quality was actually poorer. As for gameplay, aside from the more characters, Mortal Kombat Gold plays identically to Mortal Kombat 4.

Despite appearing on a 128-bit system, Mortal Kombat Gold did not utilize the increased technology. Its graphics and gameplay were identical, if not inferior, to Mortal Kombat 4 on the Nintendo 64, a system of half the power (although the character models for the fighters themselves were of slightly higher quality than those seen in the home console ports of MK4). Game Revolution described the game as terrible. "The graphics are inexcusably horrible," and "it's quite a depressing let-down on Sega's 128-bit masterpiece," especially when compared to Soul Calibur. The weapons that characters can use during the game are generic and uninteresting and have nothing to do with the character. Every weapon is either a sword, axe, or club. IGN had similar bad reviews about Mortal Kombat Gold. In response to the poor weaponry, "readying your weapon is a slow process in which you can be hit any number of times during the attempt." Although they commented on the improvements from previous Mortal Kombat games, the lack of depth was somewhat inexcusable.

Returning characters:
Mortal Kombat Gold did not feature any new characters, although it did bring back several characters that were absent from Mortal Kombat 4. In addition to that, Baraka (upper righthand corner) was brought back after being absent from Mortal Kombat 3, UMK3 and Mortal Kombat 4.

The character models, moves, and combos were all identical to Mortal Kombat 4, which attributed to its lack of success on the 128-bit Dreamcast. Shinnok was also the final boss in this game, and he is regarded as the "worst" Mortal Kombat boss of all time.

The returning characters were Sonya Blade, Cyrax, Jax, Liu Kang, Mileena, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Reiko, Jarek, Baraka, Kitana, Raiden, Tanya, Scorpion, Kai, Reptile, Fujin, Shinnok, and Quan Chi.

Secret characters
Secret, hidden characters were accessible by using a code on the player select screen. The hidden characters were Sektor, Noob Saibot, and Goro. In addition, a cheat code allowed a bloody skeleton to replace any character, adopting his or her moves and fatalities. This skeleton, used otherwise as a template in various fatalities in the game, is known as Meat, although the character was not named in the game.

Belokk was also a character to have been rumored to be in the game and accessible by a cheat code. The developer of the game, Eurocom, accidentally sent information about the game with Belokk in it to Game Informer, and as a result, six screenshots of him were leaked to the public. When rotating Tanya's character box for an alternate costume, it reveals a question mark. It was rumored that the question mark was to represent Belokk had he really been in the game. It was questioned why Tanya's box did that, but it was just added to the list of glitches and mistakes in Mortal Kombat Gold.

Boss and sub-boss

 * Shinnok is the boss character in both Mortal Kombat 4 and Mortal Kombat Gold. Unlike some previous Mortal Kombat games, this game allows you to readily play as the boss character, which degrades the integrity of the boss position.
 * Goro is the sub-boss appearing before Shinnok. He is only playable through a cheat code.