History YMMV / MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero

* 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.

* EvilIsSexy: Sareena ([[HeelFaceTurn at first]]), as well as Kia and Jataaka. Unsurprisingly, the tried-and-true combination of {{Dark Action Girl}}s and [[HellBentForLeather dark leather]] works here in ''Mortal Kombat'' as well.

* 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 its 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.

* 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''.

* 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'', but Sareena has yet to return as a playable character.

* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed. While this game still has plenty of flaws as noted above, it is at least something of a {{Cult Class|ic}}--... er, "Kult Klassic" that contributed to the mythos of the series (details concerning the Netherrealm including [[SatanicArchetype Shinnok]], [[DivineConflict his past with the other Elder Gods]], and his [[MacGuffin Sacred Amulet]]), added new characters ([[EnsembleDarkhorse Fujin and Sareena]]), and [[CanonImmigrant introduced]] Quan Chi, who originally debuted in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'', as a canonical character. Another thing fans admire is that, for all the {{Narm}}, it gives Bi-Han a lot of character beyond "Evil hitman with ice powers", something people felt [[FlatCharacter later portrayals of him sorely lacked]]. The same could not be said for ''VideoGame/MortalKombatSpecialForces'', which has [[CanonDiscontinuity been virtually retconned out]] (save for [[UnexpectedCharacter a surprise appearance]] by [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tremor]] both in the Bonus Challenge Tower of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} port of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' proper, as well as Tasia featuring in the ''MKX'' prequel comics).

** 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".
** 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 has no official name.

* HarsherInHindsight: After Bi-Han returns with Shinnok's Amulet, he asks Raiden about what Quan Chi meant by him being tainted with evil what that meant for his future. The thunder god told him that ''"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.

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The game is made ridiculously hard by the bad controls, cheap instant death traps, confusing layouts, poor hit detection, and over abundance of enemies.

** Fire-breathing dinosaur and robot guards as sub-boss adversaries that hinder Sub-Zero's quest in ''Netherrealm''. Since Netherrealm is "a realm for tainted lost souls", the idea of dinosaur and robots existing in that place is absurd and ridiculous.
* OlderThanTheyThink: The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fighting engine was first moved to an adventure game by ''Film/BatmanForever'' for the 16-bit consoles. As you might guess, the game was full of {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s like here.
* 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.

* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed. While this game still has plenty of flaws as noted above, it is at least something of a {{Cult Class|ic}}--... er, "Kult Klassic" that contributed to the mythos of the series (details concerning the Netherrealm including [[SatanicArchetype Shinnok]], [[DivineConflict his past with the other Elder Gods]], and his [[MacGuffin Sacred Amulet]]), added new characters ([[EnsembleDarkhorse Fujin and Sareena]]), and [[CanonImmigrant introduced]] Quan Chi, who originally debuted in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'', as a canonical character. Another thing fans admire is that, for all the {{Narm}}, it gives Bi-Han a lot of character beyond "Evil hitman with ice powers", something people felt [[FlatCharacter later portrayals of him sorely lacked.]] The same could not be said for ''VideoGame/MortalKombatSpecialForces'', which has [[CanonDiscontinuity been virtually retconned out]] (save for [[UnexpectedCharacter a surprise appearance]] by [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tremor]] both in the Bonus Challenge Tower of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} port of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' proper, as well as Tasia featuring in the ''MKX'' prequel comics).

* 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.

* OlderThanTheyThink: The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fighting engine was first moved to an adventure game by ''Film/BatmanForever'' for the Super Nintendo. As you might guess, the game was full of {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s like here.

* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed. While this game still has plenty of flaws as noted above, it is at least something of a {{Cult Class|ic}}--... er, "Kult Klassic" that contributed to the mythos of the series (details concerning the Netherrealm including [[SatanicArchetype Shinnok]], [[DivineConflict his past with the other Elder Gods]], and his [[MacGuffin Sacred Amulet]]), added new characters ([[EnsembleDarkhorse Fujin and Sareena]]), and [[CanonImmigrant introduced]] Quan Chi, who originally debuted in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'', as a canonical character. The same could not be said for ''VideoGame/MortalKombatSpecialForces'', which has [[CanonDiscontinuity been virtually retconned out]] (save for [[UnexpectedCharacter a surprise appearance]] by [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tremor]] both in the Bonus Challenge Tower of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} port of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' proper, as well as Tasia featuring in the ''MKX'' prequel comics).

* [[EnsembleDarkhorse/MortalKombat Ensemble Darkhorse]]

* {{SugarWiki/Awesome Music}}: Most would agree that the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u60HCk4NX_0 soundtrack]] is pretty good and adds a nice ambiance to the levels.
* 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. If you want to actually defeat him, [[ThatOneBoss it’s a different story]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Fujin and Sareena first appeared in this game and after ''Armageddon'' have been widely requested characters for subsequent games, even making cameos in VideoGame/MortalKombatX. Fujin finally made it to a roster again as a DLC character in VideoGame/MortalKombat11, but Sareena has yet to return as a playable character.

* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed. While this game still has plenty of flaws as noted above, it is at least something of a {{Cult Class|ic}}--... er, "Kult Klassic" that contributed to the mythos of the series (details concerning the Netherrealm including [[SatanicArchetype Shinnok]], [[DivineConflict his past with the other Elder Gods]], and his [[MacGuffin Sacred Amulet]]), added new characters (Fujin and [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sareena]]), and [[CanonImmigrant introduced]] Quan Chi, who originally debuted in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'', as a canonical character. The same could not be said for ''VideoGame/MortalKombatSpecialForces'', which has [[CanonDiscontinuity been virtually retconned out]] (save for [[UnexpectedCharacter a surprise appearance]] by [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tremor]] both in the Bonus Challenge Tower of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} port of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' proper, as well as Tasia featuring in the ''MKX'' prequel comics).

* {{SugarWiki/Awesome Music}}: Most would agree that the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u60HCk4NX_0 sountrack]] is pretty good and adds a nice ambiance to the levels.

** From WebVideo/ProJared's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwSrRK39Uo review of the game,]] there's his [[{{Mondegreen}} "interpretation"]] of the Fire God's [[SpeakingSimlish gibberish]] [[{{Kiai}} attack calls]], captioned as "'''[[StonersAreFunny WHERE ARE MY DANK WEEDS?]]'''"

* DifficultySpike: Earth God and Prison Guard/Warden fight. As if this game wasn't already hard enough. Hope you can use Sub-Zero's Slide move. And then there's the Wind Temple...

* EvilIsSexy: Sareena ([[HeelFaceTurn at first]]), as well as Kia and Jataaka.

** 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:

** Fujin, the Wind God, is a pain to everybody. To make it worse, when he is weakened, he tries a Kamikaze technique and figuring out how to avoid it takes some time.
** 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 {{Deflector Shield|s}} 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.

** 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.

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The game is made ridiculously hard by the bad controls, cheap instant death traps, confusing layouts, and over abundance of enemies.

** Rapidly having Sub-Zero turn back and forth causes him break into this sort of jig/shuffle. It has been dubbed by fans as "The Sub-Zero Dance."

** Even Level 1 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.

* {{Narm}}: 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.

* HamAndCheese: 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.

-->''DIIIIE, LIN KUEIII!''
-->''NO...THE AMULET! NNNOOOOOO! [[OneWingedAngel RWUUUAAAAAAAA-]]''
* HarsherInHindsight: After Bi-Han returns with Shinnok's Amulet, he asks Raiden about what Quan Chi meant by him being tainted with evil what that meant for his future. The thunder god told him that ''"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' death in the process.

** Rapidly having Sub-Zero turn back and forth causes Sub-Zero break into this sort of jig/shuffle. It has been dubbed by fans as "The Sub-Zero Dance."

-->''[[WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} Ohhhh, my!~]]''
* {{Narm}}: 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 the [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=d887L9UK4RE outtakes:]] while the cast all had a great time on set, they were clearly on the verge of {{corpsing}} most of the time.

* OlderThanTheyThink: The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fighting engine was first moved to an adventure game by ''Film/BatmanForever'' for the Super Nintendo. As you might guess, the game was full of {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s like here.

** 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 no attacking his DeflectorShields will block all of your attack 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, meaning that getting near him in instant death. The game expects you run away at this point so the portals that would normally take you to the opposite ends of the stage will take 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 to beat him before he reaches you.

** 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 time window to get it right as well as the clunky controls hindering you. On top of all of this, it contains ThatOneBoss.
** Even Level 1 can be this due to its incredibly annoying traps, most notably the ceiling pillars which can crush you instantly. Often times you will find yourself between two of them; once you get chipped by one, you will helplessly stagger ''into the other one'' and die.
** 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 mid-air.
** 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; and therefore, Sub-Zero will be stuck being ''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're going to want to reset the entire level to escape the glitch.
* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed. While this game still has plenty of flaws as noted above, it is at least something of [[CultClassic Cult Class-]]... er, "Kult Klassic" that has contributed to the mythos of the series (Details concerning the Netherrealm including [[SatanicArchetype Shinnok]], [[DivineConflict his past with the other Elder gods]], and his [[MacGuffin Sacred Amulet]]), added new characters (Fujin and [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sareena]]), and [[CanonImmigrant introduced]] Quan Chi, who originally debuted in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'', as a canonical character. The same could not be said for ''VideoGame/MortalKombatSpecialForces'', which has [[CanonDiscontinuity been virtually retconned out]] (save for [[UnexpectedCharacter a surprise appearance]] by [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tremor]] both in the Bonus Challenge Tower of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} port of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' proper, as well as Tasia featuring in the ''MKX'' prequel comics).

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Arguably the best part of the whole game, keeping in track with the franchise's record of great music. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Dlrq2rDSE Quan Chi]]'s boss theme is an intense, threatening tune, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Dlrq2rDSE Shinnok]]'s subsequent fight having a track that is somehow both ethereal and groovy, until it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR6_Kex6NWM kicks into high gear]] during the Beast/Corrupted Shinnok phase, as short (and difficult) as it is.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Arguably the best part of the whole game, keeping in track with the franchise's record of great music. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Dlrq2rDSE Quan Chi]]'s boss theme is an intense, threatening tune, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Dlrq2rDSE Shinnok]]'s subsequent fight having a track that is somehow both ethereal and groovy, until it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR6_Kex6NWM kicks into high gear]] during the Corrupted Shinnok phase, as short (and difficult) as it is.