Line #19 YMMV/MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero


1	See also the franchise-wide pages for:
2	* [[AndTheFandomRejoiced/MortalKombat And The Fandom Rejoiced]]
3	* [[Monster/MortalKombat Complete Monster]]
4	* [[HilariousInHindsight/MortalKombat Hilarious In Hindsight]]
5	* [[Memes/MortalKombat Memes]]
6	* [[NauseaFuel/MortalKombat Nausea Fuel]]
7	* [[TheScrappy/MortalKombat The Scrappy]]
8	* [[Woobie/MortalKombat The Woobie]]
9	----
10	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Most would agree that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u60HCk4NX_0 the soundtrack]] is pretty good and adds a nice ambience to the levels.
11	* AntiClimaxBoss: Shinnok turns into this when you realize you can just jump over him when he attacks and then freeze him, allowing you to easily take his amulet, then run away from his OneWingedAngel form. If you want to actually defeat him, [[ThatOneBoss it's a different story]].
12	* CriticalBacklash: ''Mythologies: Sub Zero'' sold poorly and was largely panned by critics, but the game is something of a CultClassic among ''Mortal Kombat'' fans for [[EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame its story and additions to the mythos of the series]]. For all of its many flaws, the game ended up introducing plenty of beloved characters that would appear in future games ([[EnsembleDarkhorse Fujin, Sareena]], and especially [[TheDragon Quan Chi]]), as well as expand on lore of the Netherrealm (including [[SatanicArchetype Shinnok]], [[DivineConflict his past with the other Elder Gods]], and his [[MacGuffin Sacred Amulet]]), and do its title job of exploring Bi-Han's character beyond "Evil hitman with ice powers". When compared to the likes of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatSpecialForces'', which has been virtually ignored [[CanonDiscontinuity by NRS and fans alike]], ''Mythologies: Sub Zero'' is more fondly regarded as having earned its place in the franchise.
13	* DemonicSpiders: The Floating Monk enemies are completely protected by shields that damage you when you try to attack them, they zap you with lightning, and they teleport at will. They only take one hit to kill, but it's a very ''brief'' window to kill them. You have to hit them ''just'' when they're teleporting, which takes ''strict'' timing with Sub-Zero's ice blast.
14	* DieForOurShip: Poor Sareena. Don't you know just how much fangirls hate it when a canon female character is paired up with a MrFanservice?
15	* DifficultySpike:
16	** The fights with the Earth God and the Prison Guard/Warden both qualify. As if this game wasn't already hard enough. Hope you can use Sub-Zero's Slide move.
17	** And then there's [[ThatOneLevel the Wind Temple]]... You have to get through that hellish experience--which is only the ''second'' stage--long before the above bosses, letting you know [[NintendoHard exactly what kind of game this is]].
18	* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: While the game is certainly ''functional'', it is such an extreme case of NintendoHard that you would be far better off just watching the cutscenes, which tell a very interesting narrative which goes into the backstory of Bi-Han, Shinnok and Quan Chi, all of which blend perfectly well with the mainline games and even helped the latter two become {{Canon Immigrant}}s. It helps that said cutscenes are ''drowning'' in HamAndCheese, making the story even better.
19	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Fujin and Sareena first appeared in this game and after ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' have been widely requested characters for subsequent games, even making cameos in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''. Fujin finally made it to the roster again as a DLC character in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'', while Sareena would make her belated return in ''VIdeoGame/MortalKombat1'', albeit as an AssistCharacter only.
20	* FanNickname:
21	** Some fans call the God of Earth as "Ohona", though it's unknown where the name came from, or "Chijin", the name of the Japanese god of earth.
22	** For the same reasons as above, "Kumari" or "Suijin" for the Water God. Due to one fan-made sprite comic, he's also occasionally called [[PunnyName O'Shin]].
23	** "Hinoka" or "Kajin" for the Fire God.
24	** For a long time, due to it not having an official name in this game or any other until ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'', Shinnok's [[spoiler:Corrupted form]] had been called "Beast Shinnok" or "Demon Shinnok".
25	** The Lin Kuei Grandmaster is often named Oniro in fan works, after the (different) Grandmaster from ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'' -- it's so widely used that many forget the canon Grandmaster [[NoNameGiven has no official name]].
26	* GoddamnedBoss: Shinnok's first form. You can only hit him right when he attacks or taunts you, otherwise your attacks will be blocked by his DeflectorShields, which also hurt you if you touch him. And if you take too long reaching him after freezing him, you have to freeze him again. If you freeze him while his shield is up, it will stay up, leading you to take damage when you try to jump over it.
27	* HamAndCheese:
28	** Rich Divizio's portrayal of Quan Chi. He's far and away the best actor in this game, and is clearly having the time of his life.
29	** [[HamToHamCombat Every other actor has their own fair share of hammy cheesiness]], and yet all of them still make it into their own special kind, both in body movement and voice. Even in-game, the ham is still prevalent, especially in Shinnok's voice:
30	--->''DIIIIE, LIN KUEIII!''
31	--->''NO... THE AMULET! NNNOOOOOO! [[OneWingedAngel RWUUUAAAAAAAA]]--''
32	* HarsherInHindsight: After Bi-Han returns with Shinnok's Amulet, he asks Raiden about what Quan Chi meant by him being tainted with evil and what that meant for his future. The thunder god responds with "But only you can control your destiny. Not even the gods can alter your chosen path in life." These words would likely haunt Raiden in light of what happened in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', in which he sent a message to himself into the past to alter the timeline in order to thwart Shao Kahn's victory in [[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon the Battle of Armageddon]] and ended up unwittingly bringing about several heroes' deaths in the process. [[spoiler:And then ''that'' ended up being AllForNothing as ''11'' reveals Kronika has been manipulating the events of the Original and Reboot timelines the entire time]].
33	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: While the blooper reel is mostly funny, they can be rather endearing to watch; it is very evident that the FMV cast had a wonderful time on set, even if the final product amounts primarily to NarmCharm.
34	* ItsHardSoItSucks: The game is made ridiculously hard by the bad controls, cheap instant death traps, confusing layouts, poor hit detection, and overabundance of enemies.
35	* MemeticMutation:
36	** Rapidly having Sub-Zero turn back and forth causes him to break into this sort of jig/shuffle. It has been dubbed by fans as "The Sub-Zero Dance."
37	** Shinnok's epically smug trollface seen after [[spoiler:he kills Sareena]] is also catching on.
38	--->''[[WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} Ohhhh, my!~]]''
39	** From WebVideo/ProJared's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwSrRK39Uo review of the game,]] there's his "interpretation" of the Fire God's [[SpeakingSimlish gibberish]] [[{{Kiai}} attack calls]], captioned as "'''[[StonersAreFunny WHERE ARE MY DANK WEEDS?]]'''"
40	* {{Narm}}:
41	** The [=FMVs=]... are kind of laughable, one example being the DeathThrows that play whenever Sub-Zero [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=gAgoABAwwNIfalls drops down a bottomless pit.]] The acting is quite melodramatic and the scenes look very cheap; some of them use the exact same animations. They surrender to {{Camp}} completely by the time you get to [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=d887L9UK4RE the outtakes:]] while the cast all had a great time on set, they were clearly on the verge of {{corpsing}} most of the time.
42	** A fire-breathing dinosaur and robot guards as sub-boss adversaries that hinder Sub-Zero's quest in ''the Netherrealm''. Since Netherrealm is "a realm for tainted lost souls", the idea of dinosaurs and robots existing in that place is absurd and ridiculous.
43	* NintendoHard: Even if you figure out the cheat codes for no damage/infinite lives, the game is ''still'' hard as ''hell'', due to the bizarre control schemes and the extreme caution you need to take during some of the platforming elements. Not to mention the [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard A.I. opponents]], which ''will'' punch you into a pit if they can.
44	* OlderThanTheyThink: The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fighting engine was first moved to an adventure game with ''Film/BatmanForever'' for 16-bit consoles. As you might guess, the game was full of {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s like here.
45	* PortingDisaster: Despite being on a more powerful system, the Nintendo 64 port is inferior to the [=PlayStation=] original in every way aside from the lack of load times, with muffled audio, blurry sprites and background textures, even worse controls, and the FMV cutscenes replaced by still images accompanied by text. While most of this can be attributed to the console using carts, the controls aren't excusable.
46	* ScrappyMechanic: The transition from a fighting game to an action game brought multiple issues:
47	** Sub-Zero's walking animation is terribly slow. He walks just like in the fighting game. The player can try running but they will become defenseless.
48	** Platforming is incredibly complicated in the second stage. There are platforms that spin 360 degrees and getting to them is close to guessing.
49	** Changing direction from left to right requires to press one of R/L buttons rather than the directional buttons. As a result the player will be defenseless while doing it.
50	** Players who try Easy [[EasyModeMockery will feel slapped in the face]] when the game ends with a cliffhanger and they have to replay the entire game in a harder difficulty to actually finish it.
51	** The RPG elements. Many were disappointed that you had to learn Sub-Zero's moves instead of starting out with them like in other games.
52	* SoBadItsGood: The acting in the [=PS1=] cutscenes is just so unintentionally silly that it's worth a watch on [=YouTube=]. Some of the death animations when Sub-Zero falls ("AAAAAAAAAH") are pretty funny, too.
53	* SpecialEffectFailure: Sub-Zero's climbing animation. His arms don't quite touch the rope and his legs don't move ''period''. It's often joked that he looks like he's juggling (or, as WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} put it once, plate-spinning).
54	* ThatOneBoss:
55	** Fujin, the Wind God, is a pain to everybody. To make it worse, when he is weakened, he tries a Kamikaze technique and [[GuideDangIt figuring out]] how to avoid it takes some time. [[note]]The player has to run all the way to the end of the platform and crouch, causing Sub-Zero to hang on for dear life and ride out the storm, after which Fujin dies. At no point does the game even remotely hint that you need to do this.[[/note]]
56	** Shinnok can also be this if you want to actually defeat him rather than just stealing his amulet. At first he fires projectiles which don't do a lot of damage on their own, but the number he launches racks up damage very quickly. He is also hard to even hit since when he's not attacking his DeflectorShields will block all of your attacks and damage you if you touch it. Taking his amulet causes him to break out his OneWingedAngel where he becomes an AdvancingBossOfDoom that kills you in three hits, but his long reach means if he hits you once you'll get hit as soon as you get back up. In other words, getting near him spells instant death. The game expects you run away at this point so the portals that would normally take you to the opposite end of the stage will take you to the ending. This means the only reliable way to beat him is spam the Polar Blast and hope you have enough restorative items to use it enough times to beat him before he reaches you.
57	* ThatOneLevel: Pretty much every level in the entire game is difficult, but here are the worst offenders:
58	** Level 2 is probably the game's hardest level based on its multiple platforming elements, the worst ones having to be the windmills (it is nigh-impossible to time your jump perfectly) and the falling platforms, due to there being such a small window to get it right as well as the clunky controls hindering you. On top of all of this, it contains ThatOneBoss in the aforementioned Fujin.
59	** Even Level 1 [[EarlyGameHell can be this]] due to its incredibly annoying traps, most notably the ceiling pillars which can crush you instantly. Oftentimes you will find yourself between two of them; once you get chipped by one, you will helplessly stagger ''into the other one'' and die.
60	** Level 4 is absolutely hellish in that it is incredibly confusing -- every single area looks exactly the same, making it hard to figure out where you are going. In the rooms with the rope, an enemy will often be at the other side, and ''Elder Gods forbid'' he hits you while you are in midair.
61	** Level 7 is also easy to get lost in, because of multiple instances of GuideDangIt: the camera hides lower platforms leading to pivotal locations, making it seem like half of the map is pitfalls and therefore making the level rather tedious. This level even contains a GameBreakingBug: if you have the misfortune of mistiming a jump above an electric fence, you will land on top of the fence. As such, Sub-Zero will wind up stuck there, ''infinitely juggled by the fence, taking chip damage with every hit''. The most insulting element is that Sub-Zero is stuck in midair once this glitch occurs, and can only enter a death state when he falls out of the map or is on the ground -- therefore, you are stuck on this fence ''even after your health goes to zero'', at which point you'll want to reset the entire level to escape the glitch.

Context YMMV / MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero