It also serves as a prequel to Mortal Kombat 4, which was released the same year, introducing characters and story elements that would be used by the fourth main installment.

Praise was directed at the transition from the fighting game genre to action-adventure and the PlayStation version's live-action cutscenes, but the controls and punishing level design received criticism.

The story is set before the events that took place in the original Mortal Kombat and follows the Lin Kuei assassin and thief Sub-Zero hired by the sorcerer Quan Chi to steal a map of elements from a Shaolin temple.

Battling through the Shaolin monks who guarded the map, Sub-Zero faces his rival, Scorpion from the Shirai Ryu clan who was also hired by Quan Chi.

Retaining the Lin Kuei's services, Quan Chi has Sub-Zero follow the map to the Temple of Elements, where an amulet of "sentimental value" was resting.

[3] Sub-Zero reaches the temple and went through its many challenges and obstacles, defeating the gods of Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire that protected the amulet.

Just as Sub-Zero reaches out for it, Quan Chi takes the amulet, saying that it was actually the source of power for a fallen Elder God named Shinnok.

Quan Chi disappears through a portal, and the thunder god Raiden accuses Sub-Zero, ordering him to go to the Netherealm to retrieve the amulet.

[5] Returning to the Lin Kuei headquarters, Sub-Zero is invited by another sorcerer named Shang Tsung to compete in a tournament called Mortal Kombat.

The making of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero spanned about 14 months from start to finish,[7] with news that the game was being worked on leaking to the press in the third quarter of 1996.

While Sub-Zero and many of the more humanoid characters were created using Mortal Kombat's trademark of digitizing live actors, many of the more ominous enemies, as well as all of the backgrounds, were done in real-time 3D.

After fighting several cookie-cutter enemies and getting killed in unpredictable traps, even the most hard-core Mortal Kombat fans will find themselves frustrated and angry.

")[25] GamePro took a more moderate but still positive stance, describing it as "an interesting, entertaining, and ultimately exhausting spinoff of the arcade fighting series.

Mythologies isn't as big as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or as complex as Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, but for solid and challenging action, it holds its own nicely.

"[33] Praises for the game centered on its system of accumulating experience points to learn moves,[a] the graphics (in particular the 3D backgrounds),[b] and the full motion video (FMV) cutscenes.