Mortal Kombat Mythologies : Sub-Zero

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for PlayStation is a 1997 action-adventure spin-off from Midway's Mortal Kombat series. Developed with Avalanche Software support and released by Midway Home Entertainment in North America, it shifts the series' digitized fighters and command-based attacks into a side-scrolling quest. The PlayStation edition tells an earlier story in the series timeline, placing players in control of Bi-Han, the elder Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei.

The adventure begins when the assassin is hired by the sorcerer Quan Chi to obtain a map from a Shaolin temple. That job brings him into conflict with Scorpion and eventually sends him after Shinnok's amulet. The journey moves from the temple and the elemental trials beyond it to the Netherrealm, using cinematic sequences between stages to present encounters with figures including Raiden, Quan Chi, Scorpion, and Sareena. Its prequel setting also supplies background for characters and events connected with Mortal Kombat 4.

Rather than selecting fighters for one-on-one tournament bouts, players guide Sub-Zero through 2D locations filled with hostile guards, traps, jumps, switches, and items. Progress depends on reaching exits, locating objects needed to proceed, and surviving battles with regular foes and larger opponents. Levels blend platform navigation with encounters that use a combat system built around high and low punches, high and low kicks, blocking, running, jumps, and familiar directional commands.

Sub-Zero starts with limited resources but earns experience by fighting enemies. Experience unlocks additional special techniques, while the inventory screen tracks collected items, earned experience, and learned moves. His ice attacks draw from an Ice Meter that refills over time, so freezing foes and using other ice-based abilities requires some resource management. Health-restoring and ice-restoring items can be found along the way, and passwords record a player's level progress.

The PlayStation controller layout gives separate buttons to interaction and facing direction in addition to its attack, block, and run controls. The action button is used for such tasks as collecting items and operating objects, while the turn function lets Sub-Zero change his facing without walking across the screen. This structure preserves much of the arcade fighting series' move-input vocabulary while asking the player to apply it during exploration and platform challenges instead of a conventional versus match.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero is notable as Mortal Kombat's first game designed around a single character and an action-adventure format rather than a fighting tournament. It retains the franchise's digitized performers for many characters while combining them with rendered environments and live-action story footage in the PlayStation version. A Nintendo 64 release arrived the same year, but the PlayStation edition is the version associated with the full-motion-video presentation that helps carry Sub-Zero's quest between its combat and exploration sequences.