Whether you’re a Mortal Kombat veteran, a dabbler, or you’ve never played at all, you’re probably familiar with Sub-Zero. The iconic ninja has been locked in an eternal battle with rival Scorpion for decades, with the pair appearing in almost every franchise entry to date in some guise or other. They’re not just Mortal Kombat icons, they’re pop culture legends in their own right.
Of the two, Sub-Zero may be the most notorious. Considered ‘cheap’ by some fans, his icy shenanigans don’t always go down very well in online play. How would this notorious warrior fare against other legends of the fighting game world, though? Let’s take a look!
10 COULD BEAT: Jin Kisaragi
Fighting game afficionados will be familiar with BlazBlue, a hectic and brilliantly over the top 2D fighting franchise from Arc System Works. One of the central characters of these technical titles is Jin Kisaragi, brother of protagonist Ragna the Bloodedge.
While Ragna fights with a huge, heavy broadsword, Jin wields Ice Sword: Yukianesa. With this blade, he can control ice in much the same fashion as Sub-Zero, both offensively and defensively. However, with his projectiles, ice clones, and such, Sub-Zero could be argued to have a more potent command of the element.
9 CAN’T BEAT: Noob Saibot
Now, here’s an interesting thought to consider. Mortal Kombat fans will know that the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han, murdered Scorpion at the height of their bitter rivalry. His victim was resurrected, however, returning to seek vengeance and killing Bi-Han in the original tournament.
His kid brother, Kuai Liang, took up the title of Sub-Zero. Bi-Han, meanwhile, returned as Noob Saibot, a malevolent force similar to Scorpion with its own range of otherworldly abilities. The question is, could Sub-Zero as we know him today defeat his former self? With Noob Saibot’s tricky range of teleports, clones, and teleporting clones, he probably couldn’t.
8 COULD BEAT: Ryu
Our next contender is none other than Street Fighter’s iconic fireball-thrower, Ryu. We all know him, the feats he’s accomplished and his absolutely incredible pick rate in online play. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a Ryu.
The thing is, though, he’s just a little too vanilla for many. In a bout between these two poster children of their respective franchises, Sub-Zero brings so much more to the table in terms of fighting style and special moves. Once the ninja’s through Ryu’s wall of Hadoukens, it’s pretty well game over.
7 CAN’T BEAT: Orchid
Sub-Zero may have access to a plethora of devastating ice-based attacks, but let’s not forget one crucial thing here: ice doesn’t tend to fare well against fire. Granted, this isn’t the Pokémon universe and elemental weaknesses and resistances aren’t taken into account, but still: Sub-Zero doesn’t really want to tangle with fiery foes.
One character with all the flaming attacks and incredible agility to get the better of Sub-Zero is Orchid, of the Killer Instinct series. One of the series’ major players, she’s an operative of a shadowy organization (or is she) who was subjected to all kinds of experimentation. As a result, she can command an energy being known as the firecat, which she can summon at will to strike foes down. An unpredictable and very well-equipped opponent (think Street Fighter’s C. Viper), Sub-Zero would have his work cut out for him here. And his sneaky ice clones melted by the firecat, presumably.
6 COULD BEAT: Taki
Taki is a member of a very specific breed of fighting game character. Namely, the quick, sneaky, and super agile fighters who can unleash some crafty combos (and need to, because their individual hits are about as damaging as poking Godzilla in the toenail with a Pop Tart).
Such fighters are reliant on their agility and small size to get themselves out of danger. The issue is, we don’t imagine Sub-Zero would be particularly phased by that sort of strategy. After all, he’s famously for being able to temporarily immobilize foes by freezing them. Once he’s got a handle on this Soul Calibur veteran's movements, she’s in for a world of pain.
5 CAN’T BEAT: Blaziken
True enough, Blaziken isn’t a fighting game character in the traditional sense. It is one of the star Pokémon of Pokkén Tournament, however, so we feel entirely justified in featuring it here.
What we have on our hands here is a pure nightmare for Sub-Zero. Not only is this 6’03” chicken launching fire absolutely every-darn-where, but it’s also a very agile opponent that cannot be frozen (Fire-type Pokémon can’t, you see). It’s at this point that Sub-Zero probably remembers he left the TV on in the dojo and has to cancel the battle and hurry home.
4 COULD BEAT: Frost
Of course, when it comes to ice-wielding fighting game characters, Sub-Zero is the first that springs to mind. It’s right there in his name, after all, and he burned himself onto fans’ minds indelibly with his spine-pulling shenanigans way back then. He can’t hog all of the glory, though, because there are several other capable ice-wielders. Frost hails from his own franchise, in fact.
Appropriately enough, Frost was introduced as an underling of Sub-Zero’s in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. She has previously challenged her master and been defeated, meaning she’s unlikely to be able to defeat him in one-on-one combat. Even so, she’s not just a pale imitation of him: her abilities are similar but distinct, and she can be a heck of a lot of fun to play.
3 CAN’T BEAT: Raiden
Now, the world of Mortal Kombat boasts some brilliantly ridiculous lore and characters of suitably absurd power. Formidable warlords, supernatural warlocks, bestial horrors… there are all kinds of frightening powerhouses around here, that’s for darn sure.
It’s tough to pick the franchise’s strongest character of all, but many fans would certainly plump for the Thunder God himself, Raiden. The goodly defender of Earthrealm has defied Shao Kahn, his own death and ‘repaired’ and kick-started the whole universe. There are few Mortal Kombat warriors that can match him, and when unfettered by tournament rules, he’s far beyond Sub-Zero's reach for the most part.
2 COULD BEAT: M. Bison
Here’s a bit of a curveball for our next entry. As we know, there’s quite a disparity between the fighting styles and techniques used in different series. This is what makes crossover battles between some of the biggest titles in the genre so much fun to speculate about.
Mortal Kombat, of course, takes a much more brutal, limb-loppin,’ spine-removin’ approach to combat. How would M. Bison’s infamous Psycho Power translate? It’s tough to say. However, its supernatural nature and the teleportation tricks it grants the villain suggest that it would probably be quite at home here. At the peak of his potential, we’d say that Sub-Zero’s cryokinetic powers would get the better of the Shadaloo leader, but what a match it would be!
1 CAN’T BEAT: Glacius
Sub-Zero may be the most notable fighting game character with ice-based powers, but is he the strongest? Well, Killer Instinct’s Glacius would probably have a little something to say about that.
Like Orchid, this being is one of the faces of the series. It’s an alien of mysterious origin that (as of the 2013 reboot) adopted the role of interplanetary marshal, pursuing lifeforms of all sorts that defy the 88 Decrees of the Alliance of Worlds. As such, Glacius tangles with all manner of powerful extra-terrestrials, but is certainly a match for just about anything. Its species can manipulate the molecular structure of certain materials, providing themselves with barriers and such by controlling nature itself (in a limited sense). In battle, Glacius can summon devastating energy blasts and waves of freezing hail.