Remembering The Video Game Lies I Heard About "Mortal Kombat" That Got Implemented, One Way Or Another

 

As I was reviewing the Video Game Lies Fandom wiki -- this is indeed true:

We all knew one. That kid who always told lies about video games. Maybe he knew a cheat code to make Lara Croft naked, or said that something special happened in Sonic if you collected 1000 rings, or that there really was a Carcer City in GTAIII that you had to be awesome to get to. Maybe you were that kid.

Do video game lies arise out of a desire to trick people, or because the liar wants to look cool? We may never know, but we can record all of these lies for posterity. Years from now, historians will be able to observe this unique bit of video game culture.

Yes, it happened and I want to look into the video game lies. I'd like to tackle those that I could remember and became real decades later.

The Ermac lie from the first game Mortal Kombat (1992)

The hidden character Reptile may have caused the controversy. One of them was a character known as Ermac. It was said that if you do certain stuff -- Ermac would be the next hidden fighter. However, it turned out that a scrambled message actually meant, "ERMAC DOES NOT EXIST!" Was that a bummer? Well, something happened and the staff created Ermac as a playable character for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

A non-canon game known as Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks was created. It was a fun spin-off that had stuff better than Mortal Kombat II. The game featured Ermac as the hardest hidden boss battle. You needed to learn special skills, go back to the Wushi Academy, offer something to the Buddha statue, enter the Warrior Shrine, analyze the ninja statue AND Ermac becomes that opponent. Ermac was that difficult. I believe it took me four to five tries before I actually WON!

To further make the rumor real -- Mortal Kombat (2011) didn't shy away from making some rumors reality. Ermac appeared in the first tournament of the rebooted timeline. Talk about getting reincarnated and making one's rumor real!

Mortal Kombat II had a rumor about finding Goro

It's a known fact that Goro has been more popular than Kintaro. I like both of them but I like Kintaro's design better. I always wish I was fighting Kintaro in Mortal Kombat (2011) every time I play that game's arcade mode. However, Goro just takes the cake. Goro even returned in Mortal Kombat X presumably due to it being a remake of Mortal Kombat 4/Gold.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks allows Goro to return to Outworld. IMHO it diminished Kintaro's OG storyline that he was going to avenge Goro. That plotline was even carried over in Mortal Kombat (2011). It's safe to assume Kintaro lacked popularity that not-so-many actually cared about his prolonged absence. Goro got so popular he was even added into the Gamecube edition of Mortal Kombat Deception. Talk about extreme favoritism for the first sub-boss!

Mortal Kombat II stage finishers that were actually made real after the 1990s

The two stage finishers that had that lie were the Living Forest and the Dead Pool. It was said one could uppercut an opponent into the mouth of one of the living trees. The other one was that the Dead Pool had an alternate finisher using the meat hooks. None of them existed and were just debunked. Fans probably demanded them and they were added.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks went as far as to put the rumors into the gameplay. The Living Forest required one to feed the trees to pass. The Dead Pool required one to uppercut certain enemies to the hooks to open the door. The two concepts would be added to the fighting games.

Mortal Kombat (2011) made the Living Forest fatality real. The opponent would be thrown into the mouth of the opponent. The game was creative enough not to rely on the uppercut too much. Instead, one could see the opponent's face dunked into lava at the Hell stage. The Living Forest fatality of throwing enemies instead of uppercutting them added layers. It was the fatality I got hyped about!

Mortal Kombat 11 revamped the Dead Pool. The gorier hook impaler was done. The opponent gets IMPALED through the mouth. The chain dunks the suffering opponent into the acid pool. Why wasn't wasn't that done in Mortal Kombat (2011) -- opting for the enemy to try and escape the acid pool in vain instead?

Mortal Kombat II also talked about the hidden characters Blaze (called Torch by the fans at some point) and Skarlett (also called Blood)

One rumor was that the person on fire at the Pit II was a hidden fighter. However, nothing was ever done with that until Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. Yes, Blaze was finally made a character to play us. However, Blaze was practically short-lived. Netherrealm Studios even retconned Blaze's defeat from Taven to Shao Kahn. Blaze probably became unpopular with the fans. Was that because Blaze was unpopular that Netherrealm Studios decided to kill him with the best villain in the franchise? Blaze isn't even given any importance in the reboot trilogy before Mortal Kombat 1. Blaze became the final boss of Mortal Kombat Armageddon BUT he was the first neutrally-aligned boss. Blaze's only role was to maintain balance in the Universe.

Skarlet was a rumored character. Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks has Kitana with a red palette swap. However, Skarlett became a DLC in Mortal Kombat (2011) followed up by her non-DLC status in Mortal Kombat 11. Skarlett was revealed (or retconned) to be a street urchin and not just some random artificial human being. Skarlett is easily one of the most dangerous characters ever created.

Somebody higher than Shao Kahn was the Bigger Bad of the franchise

I remember someone told me that there was a Bigger Bad above Shao Kahn. The rumor says it was Noob Saibot but that was easily dismissed. Noob Saibot was actually revealed to be emissary for a fallen Elder God. The character was none other than Shinnok. However, hardware limitations made it impossible for Shinnok to morph like Shang Tsung. Shinnok used impersonations and had no OG special moves. The final battle was even lamer because of CPU limitations. Shinnok got hated presumably because of that. Mortal Kombat Armageddon gave Shinnok his identity. Sadly, Shinnok wasn't given the boss stats that the boss character had. 

Mortal Kombat X gave Shinnok some justice. Sure, the Story Mode didn't but the Arcade Ladder did. Shinnok's Imposter variation allowed him to steal a specific move like Rogue did in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. My preferred variation is Bone Shaper though due to its long-reaching projectile. Arcade Shinnok became the NPC Corrupted Shinnok. Corrupted Shinnok wasn't as hard as Shao Kahn but was a nice touch. I still feel offended that Netherrealm doesn't seem to care about Shinnok. Shinnok has the potential to end the Universe more than Shao Kahn!

Mortal Kombat Deception also gave us Onaga. Onaga was Shao Kahn's former boss. Shao Kahn poisoned Onaga to take over Outworld. I guess Outworld could care less about treason and stick to survival of the fittest. I thought Onaga was cool. However, I felt Netherrealm and most fans didn't like him as much. Onaga hasn't been really given much to do during the reboot era. A shame since I wanted him as the final boss for Mortal Kombat 11. Instead, Kronika became the Bigger Bad which was higher than Shao Kahn.