Everyone's favorite blue ninja, Sub-Zero, has had many different looks and styles throughout Mortal Kombat history. The leader of the Lin Kuei and the iciest combatant in the tournament, Sub-Zero has had plenty of different costumes to match his cold style.
While his style remained traditional for most of the series, as having alternate costumes became more and more popular, Sub-Zero continues to get decked out with awesome duds. Some of those costumes and styles are better than others so here are the ten best Sub-Zero outfits.
10 Cryosphere (Mortal Kombat 11)
Mortal Kombat 11 has a very bizarre system when it comes to cosmetics, taking a quantity over quality approach resulting in a less-interesting butchering of the gear system in Injustice 2. Putting all that aside, the game still has some pretty good color palette and clothing combinations, like the Cryosphere skin. Combining the original ninja-style costuming with a modern take and giving it a light blue and black coloring makes for a very sleek looking ninja. While Sub-Zero is historically a darker blue, the light blue coloring makes far more sense for an ice ninja.
9 93 Below (Mortal Kombat 11)
The quality of the 93 Below skin relies mostly on it being a reimaging of the classic Sub-Zero skin but a very good one at that. Something that sets this skin apart from other "klassic" skins for Mortal Kombat characters in the last couple of games is that it takes the skin a step further, making it feel like it belongs in a 2019 video game without losing the appeal of being the classic skin. It does a fantastic job of bringing that old school colored ninja design from the original Mortal Kombat without looking out of place.
8 Cold Tumult (Mortal Kombat 11)
Not banking on nostalgia like the majority of good skins in Mortal Kombat 11, Cold Tumult takes the costume design from the base skin in the game and gives a sleek futuristic design to the skin. A grey and black skin with some neon orange trimming makes for a very fancy looking Sub-Zero and would have fit perfectly if the time-travel story mode had decided to go into the future at some point.
The neon trim shines with Sub-Zero's axes, making the ice made weapons look like a perfectly designed arsenal.
7 Zero Kelvin (Mortal Kombat 11)
The last Mortal Kombat 11 skin to make this list, Zero Kelvin has the same visual design as 93 Below, meaning it's a classic. The color palette is white and black with light blue trimming, really embracing the ice side of Sub-Zero. If they ever wanted to make a water ninja (assuming that Rain is a weather ninja and not a water ninja), Sub-Zero could take a white redesign to make the color blue available and everyone's eyes would be eternally available.
6 Mortal Kombat 3
The base skin for Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat 3 sees the ninja come back unmasked after being betrayed by his now robotic clan. Scarred on one side of his face by a red mark and having his gruff face free for everyone to look at might take the mystery away for some but it also shows just how intimidating the ninja truly is. It's rare that anyone in media looks cooler without a mask on, but Sub-Zero manages to do so. Beyond the unmasking, his costume remains relatively unchanged from its original design.
5 Cyber Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat 9)
To deal with this right off the bat, yes Cyber Sub-Zero is not a skin of Sub-Zero but in fact, its own character but it's still technically Sub-Zero so it counts.
Anyway, in Mortal Kombat (2011) (also known as Mortal Kombat 9) Sub-Zero gets automated instead of Smoke, resulting in Cyber Sub-Zero being the blue counterpart to Cyrax and Sektor. Despite the story implications of this tragic event, Cyber Sub-Zero looks great, coming across like a blue robotic Predator.
4 Classic (Mortal Kombat)
The original design for Sub-Zero is one of the best, without question. Despite the majority of the ninja characters looking identical with different colors, that look is synonymous with Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Having ninjas be colorful, like the blue ninja himself, feels novel after so many versions of black-clad ninjas. While the story and characters have evolved and changed in so many crazy ways over the years, the style of Sub-Zero has not changed too much, at least canonically, because they nailed it right out the gate.
3 Base (Mortal Kombat X)
There is something so visually appealing about the character styles in Mortal Kombat X. Part of that is just how massive some of the characters look, like Sub-Zero. Besides looking like he got cast in a Marvel movie, Sub-Zero also has a slick-looking outfit and some fancy looking knife pouches on his forearms, giving a strong ninja feel. Sub-Zero also has a glowing mouthpiece that he breathes out of with cold breath. The basic design gives a very classic feel with modern ideas resulting in a great version of the blue ninja.
2 Tundra (Mortal Kombat X)
Comrade Sub-Zero, also known as the Tundra skin, is a cold war inspired look for him. A gas mask inspired face and Soviet styled cap make for an intimidating looking skin. It also takes the Gears of War 3 methodology of "sleeves are stupid" showing just how jacked they made the characters in this game. They're like, cartoonishly large.
The skin also has some interesting pouches and medals on it, giving some great detail to the skin without overdoing it. Plus, who doesn't love taking a glimpse at an alternate history type fiction?
1 Blue Steel Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat X)
The Blue Steel skin for Sub-Zero is one of the sleekest looking skins in all fighting games, without question. Taking the smooth style of the classic skin and adding black to pretty much every aspect that isn't blue makes it just look phenomenal. Adding in the black eyes and the glowing ice arms (if you pick the Cryomancer variation while playing) makes it the absolute pinnacle of Sub-Zero skins, something that Netherealm Studios should be chasing with every other skin they make in the future, regardless of which fighting game series it's for.