Not that it's difficult to sidestep, but the range of movement is minimal and I found myself not using them very often. Graphics Mortal Kombat 4 sports the same sort of clean graphic look that characterizes latter generation fighters like Tekken 3 and Dead or Alive and, as in those games, maintains a healthy frame rate. This is of course accompanied by your own demonic laughter and your opponent's flying body parts. Overall, the backgrounds are graphically pleasing and stylistically consistent with the gothic feel of the game. Fans of the MK series should be well pleased though.
Character design is an important element of any fighter.
Part of a fighting game's long term value hinges on making you want to play all the characters, whether immediately available or hidden. This is one area where I found MK4 to be a bit of a letdown. The characters just didn't pull me into the game like those of a good fighter should. I hesitate to call them stick-like, but that's what I was thinking as I played. For the most part the animation is well done but it doesn't come close to matching the smoothness or complexity of Tekken 3 .