15 Video Game Mysteries Answered Years Later

Mortal Kombat has one of the most memorable and recognizable character rosters in any fighting game ever made. The likes of Goro, Scorpion and Raiden are easy to identify thanks to outlandish costume designs and sometimes hideous appearances. The second mainline instalment introduced several new faces when it released in 1993. Characters like Kitana and Kung Lao made their debuts, and went on to have long legacies in the franchise.

One of the strangest new additions to the cast of Mortal Kombat II was the character of Noob Saibot, a mysterious ninja who could be fought after racking up 50 consecutive wins in two-player mode, although some home versions reduced this to 25. Initially, no one knew anything about this character at all, leading to plenty of speculation. In an interview with one of the game's creators, John Tobias, it was explained that 'Noob Saibot' was simply the names Boon and Tobias spelled backwards, referencing the aforementioned Tobias and co-creator Ed Boon, who had added the character to the game as an easter egg.

Thanks to the mystery surrounding him, the character's popularity meant this was far from a one-off appearance, and he has continued to appear in multiple Mortal Kombat titles. In 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception, over a decade since his debut, it was finally revealed that Noob Saibot was actually the reanimated form of Bi-Han, the original version of Sub Zero who was killed by Scorpion in the original tournament.