{"id":286,"date":"2024-05-10T23:59:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T23:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/mortalkombatmayhem\/?p=286"},"modified":"2024-06-28T23:51:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T23:51:35","slug":"game-review-mortal-kombat-mythologies-sub-zero-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/mortalkombatmayhem\/index.php\/2024\/05\/10\/game-review-mortal-kombat-mythologies-sub-zero-1997\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Review: Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ninjas can’t turn things around for Mortal Kombat Mythologies<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This review originally appeared in 4Q2013. It has been edited for spelling, grammar and clarity.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"I have a soft spot for Sub-Zero’s lone action-adventure outing. It was the time period in my life where I began to be able to afford games on my own, without help from my parents or my mother’s discerning (read: frugal) hand guiding me toward a non-expensive title that may or may not have been great. It was also the time period where Mortal Kombat was losing its place at the center of my world. Other games had come along to take up the slack where the MK franchise was faltering. And Mythologies, sadly, was a part of the dying process.<\/p>\n

Mythologies tricks you with the idea that a game centered on fan-favorite Sub-Zero’s exploits in the world before he made his arrival to the 1992 Mortal Kombat tournament is somehow a good idea. It’s interesting because if you’re a fan of the franchise like I am, you know how the story ends but you want to see how it began. Included in this origin story is the master of cold’s fateful encounter with also fan-favorite Scorpion that leads full circle into the MK fighting games. The story and writing are some of the best parts of the tale, with tight prose and a few of the more nagging loose ends of the MK mythology tied up neatly.<\/p>\n

The soundtrack also plays a large part of extending the line of sympathy credit. Dan Forden has never made a soundtrack that didn’t work well with the environment of MK, and he doesn’t fail here, either. Mythologies’ sound is excellent, providing a subtly dangerous tone to the obvious chaos on screen. It retains the feel of Mortal Kombat most obviously, yet also manages to hold hints of Mortal Kombat II in some stages.<\/p>\n

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\nWhere the game plays its trick card is the execution. The biggest gripe that I have is the need for a button to turn around. No one will ever tell you that having a button to switch the way Sub-Zero faces is a good sign. Aside from the aggravation of having to do extra work with something that should be automatic, there are plenty of cheap hits that come along with not being able to turn around immediately.<\/p>\n

And with cheap hits come cheap deaths. That menagerie of death comes in three flavors: There’s getting hit multiple times from nearly instantly respawning enemies despite having a block button, and then there’s the leaps of faith and the leaps of not knowing what to do next. Those two leap types are easily the second-most aggravating things in the game. In fact, the leap of not knowing what to do next shows up at least once in the first four stages. That’s just poor design, especially when it could have been avoided with the hint system found in the form of tablets of knowledge.<\/p>\n

Control and design issues aside, I actually enjoy playing as Sub-Zero. Performing his iconic moves and combos is fun, and watching him learn them as the story progresses is neat. That little bit of extra knowledge gained from discussing Mortal Kombat with a crew in school every day and going to the arcade to play MK3 actually paid off. It’s too bad Mythologies didn’t benefit from some of the Mortal Kombat goodwill built up before it and failed in its initial attempt to change the MK action branch into something extraordinary.<\/p>\n

Score: 1.5 out of 5<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n