Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that ' Mortal Kombat Gold goes a long way towards confirming that this series peaked with MK2, and it's been in steady decline ever since.' References Releasing beside Soulcalibur certainly didn't help.'

Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot, who gave the game a score of 5.0/10, wrote that 'sitting down and playing MK Gold almost feels like a retrogaming 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.' According to a retrospective by IGN, '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. Although IGN commented on the improvements from previous Mortal Kombat games, the lack of depth was considered inexcusable. 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'. Despite having the graphics that were the most faithful to the arcade version of all the home versions of Mortal Kombat 4, Game Revolution rated it a D and commented that 'the graphics are inexcusably horrible' and 'it's quite a depressing let-down on Sega's 128-bit masterpiece, especially when compared to Soulcalibur.' 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'. Mortal Kombat Gold received an averaged review score of only 54.97% at GameRankings.

However, the Konquest mode of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance retcons this, foregoing the Lin Kuei completely and simply having the Outer World Investigation Agency recover Cyrax from the desert. Cyrax's story in Mortal Kombat Gold described him as being recovered by the Lin Kuei from the desert, but then later seeking out the help of the Outer World Investigation Agency with the intention of restoring his humanity. Cyrax being rescued by Special Forces agents Jax and Sonya and reprogrammed to fight against Shinnok.

Mileena coming out of hiding during Shinnok's invasion and using it as her chance to take revenge on Kitana.Kitana being the only survivor after Shinnok's invasion of her homeworld slaughtered the rest of her family, including Sindel.This was retconned as his surviving Kung Lao's attack, as stated in an unlockable photo of his and Mileena's Mortal Kombat Gold character renders in Mortal Kombat: Deception. Baraka dying at the hands of Kung Lao and being revived, hence the scar and metal staples on his body.Although the game's storyline is identical to that of Mortal Kombat 4, the official strategy guide for the game misprinted unused bios for the six new returning characters, causing some confusion among fans.

Mortal kombat gold iso