Traditional fighting games like Mortal Kombat aren’t platformers. In order to combine Mortal Kombat with a platformer, you’ll need to put in some serious work to bring out the strengths of both genres. Making B turn the character around does not solve any issues with trying to make a platformer out of Mortal Kombat. On top of being ridiculous for a platform game, it also makes fighting a nightmare.

With the hassle of using up to jump, levels need to be properly designed around this compromised way of platforming. MK Mythologies doesn’t cater for this, though, instead taking the most annoying tropes of the worst NES platformers and adds some of its own.

After you punch up the first enemy, you’ll walk down a corridor and be squashed by a pillar and be instantly killed. Fighting past the first enemy again, you’ll time your run and dash past it – only to be killed by a second pillar. The third time, you fight again and try to stop before the second pillar. It will clip you, but you’ll be alive – but the recoil will send you under the first pillar and you’ll be crushed and killed again.

The game is a trial-and-error experience, getting a bit further each time. I used save states pretty quickly but it was still incredibly frustrating. And that’s just the first level – the second is much, much worse.

Level two consists of lots of tiny platforms. The screen is too far zoomed in to see much, and the camera doesn’t scroll how you would like, so you have to make many blind jumps. Some platforms will also collapse. Another really frustrating things are platforms that move towards and away from the camera, so you can only jump on them when they’re in “line” with the 2D aspects – which is quite difficult to see.

As you slowly progress, you’ll encounter doors that need keys. You’ll need to explore elsewhere in the level to find the keys. Sometimes, these paths are hidden off screen. For example, there’s a bridge that collapses when you stand on it, get past and carry on and you’ll find a locked door. To find the key, you have to jump into the empty space under the collapsing bridge – something that usually kills you.

Oh, and sometimes getting to the door before finding the key for it means that you can’t go back to where the key is, so you have to die.

Even using cheats, I couldn’t bear to finish Sub Zero. The level layouts are atrocious and there’s really no enjoyment to get out of the game and progression just feels like you accidentally stumbled on the correct path and doesn’t feel rewarding.

This isn’t just one of the worst games on the N64 – it’s one of the worst 2D platformers of all time.

Worst

Although we normally take pride in completing games before reviewing them at N64 magazine, I abandoned MK Mythologies: Sub Standard on level two, and would sooner be impaled on a spike than play it any more. It’s awful.

Jonathan Davies, N64 Magazine #11. Review Score: 9%

Remake or Remaster?

While making games to expand on the characters of Mortal Kombat is a good idea, every aspect of MK Mythologies would need to be completely redone to have anything decent.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero