But as far as the worst fighting game in the franchise, MK4 still takes the crown. The only reason Mortal Kombat 4 isn’t dead last on this list is because of the franchise's misguided foray into action titles. It was okay for expanding on the story of Quan Chi, Shinnok, and Sub-Zero, but that’s nothing you can’t learn from just reading Wikipedia's plot summary. Throw in poor platforming and puzzles that utilize those bad controls, and you get a game that's simply not a fun time. While that system worked for a fighting game, it was tedious in an action title, and everything was further hampered by bad controls that made it a chore just to change directions.
But the execution left us with a terrible experience.ĭespite being an action game, Mythologies still played like a fighting game, mostly pitting the player in one-on-one encounters full of punches, kicks, and Sub-Zero’s usual move arsenal. It took one of the most interesting characters from the franchise, expanded on his story, and was going to allow players to use Sub-Zero's ice powers in an action game. In theory, Mythologies seemed like a good idea, though. This was a dark period for the series, with the transition being made into new stories after Mortal Kombat 3 didn't go over all that well.
14 MORTAL KOMBAT MYTHOLOGIES: SUB-ZERO (1997) The critics panned the game, and the original creators of Mortal Kombat had so little involvement with Special Forces that they've washed their hands of the final result. The graphics are ugly, Jax is given obnoxious one-liners, and you're left with a boring action game that feels like a Metal Gear Solid title that had every ounce of fun surgically removed. The problem is, the other aspects of the game aren't much better. But Special Forces isn't a game you want to play for the story, since there isn't much of one. Which is also kind of bizarre, since Jax has his metal arms here despite not getting them until after Mortal Kombat II. What's worse is that Special Forces is chronologically the first game in the series, meant to take place before even the first Mortal Kombat. Special Forces was supposed to focus on Jax and Sonya trying to capture Kano, but a rushed development led to Sonya being cut and Jax being the star.
Mortal Kombat Mythologies was pretty awful years earlier, but we'll get to that in a moment. The series' attempt to veer into action games always had the potential to be terrible, as it already had been before Special Forces even hit shelves. It turns out that the worst Mortal Kombat game isn't even a fighting game at all.