Mortal Kombat: 30 Absolute Best Easter Eggs You Need To See

18. April Fools! (MK1/MKII/MK11)

mortal kombat
NetherRealm Studios

Despite Mortal Kombat's brutality, it's unmistakable the developers have a sense of humour. And what better time is there to showcase your funny side than on April Fool's Day?

For one April Fool's Day prank, the team pretended you could unlock ACTUAL blood from the arcade version of MKII if you taped a penny to the machine. Many fans wrote to the developers complaining they couldn’t get this cheat to work. (Personally, I don't know why players would want blood. What did they intend to do with it?)

On April 1st 2019, the developers released a clip of Mortal Kombat 11 showing Baraka performing his decapitation Brutality on Sub-Zero. However, the clip claimed to be "family-friendly" since the blood was replaced with confetti and Sub-Zero's decapitated head was obscured by a smiley-face.

Interestingly, the first April Fool's gag for the franchise was devised by a gaming magazine, not the developing team. Electronic Gaming Monthly claimed the Mega Drive version of the original game had a hidden character called Nimbus Terrafaux.

To legitimise the rumour, the magazine showed two pictures of an African-American kickboxer in the game. A lot of people fell for the joke, unaware his name translates into "Fake Earth".

Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows