Mortal Kombat II News and Updates

The currently running HBO Max TV Series The Last of Us, based on Naughty Dog's hit game series by the same name, delivered last night one of its very excellent episodes. Left Behind, which is the 7th episode of the series, focuses on Ellie's past, her time with FEDRA and her relationship with her best friend Riley.

In an earlier episode Ellie is shown to have a very strong connection to the Mortal Kombat franchise and especially Mortal Kombat II. This time we get to see why. Earlier in the episode while we are in Ellie's room we get a glimpse at one of the walls and right in the middle of the frame we are greeted by one of the original Mortal Kombat II posters:
This was however not enough. Later in the episode, an original Mortal Kombat II arcade machine plays a vital role in the plot and the fate of the two girls. Ellie and Riley enjoy several fights while we get to see the classic arcade game in one of the best TV Shows in recent years. Raiden, Mileena, Baraka all show up on screen for a brief cameo
This episode is written by Neil Druckmann who is also the writer behind the two The Last of Us games that the show is based on. On Twitter, Ed Boon decided to show his excitement for last night's episode and share a clip from it:

EdBoon wrote:I don’t remember the last time I was hooked on a show as much as THE LAST OF US.
So seeing Mortal Kombat featured as prominently as it was last night was a huge thrill.

To his tweet, Neil Druckmann answered with:

Neil Druckmann wrote:Was waiting for you to see it! Thanks for making all the times I skipped school so awesome!

This is a dynamic in the industry I would personally love to see more often. Congratulations to Neil Druckmann for this very excellent episode.

Did you like this episode of The Last of Us? We personally cannot wait to see what happens next. More excited we are however to see how Mortal Kombat will reciprocate the shown love.

This episode marks the third time Mortal Kombat has been referenced in The Last of Us. Have a look at these previous articles for more details on the previous two guest appearances:

- Mortal Kombat 2 Reference In The Last Of Us Remake
- Another Mortal Kombat Reference In The Last Of Us Media

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We all know that Naughty Dog, the creators of the Last of Us franchise, are huge Mortal Kombat fans, and it clearly shows with the Mortal Kombat II poster that they added as a reference to MK in The Last of Us Remake. And now, the Last of Us has made another MK reference, except this time it's not in a video game form, but rather a TV show form.

On the latest episode of HBO's The Last of Us TV show. which is based on the game series, there was a scene in which the two main characters, Ellie and Joel, come to an abandoned building in search for supplies, and Ellie comes across an Arcade machine in the room. This scene also happened in the game (to be more accurate, in the Left Behind DLC), except that in the game, the Arcade machine was of a fictional fighting game called "The Turning", and there is character in that game called "Angel Knives" that had access to a finishing move with which she would punch a hole through the opponent's stomach before kicking the opponent's head off. That one in in itself was already an MK Easter Egg, particularly for MK's iconic Fatalities. In the episode, however, the Arcade Machine was changed to be an MK2 Arcade Machine, and the character that Ellie mentions is non-other than Mileena, and the finishing move that Ellie talks about was changed to be Mileena's "Man Eater" Fatality in MK2.

Here are both a video of the original cutscene from the Last of Us game, and a clip from the Last of Us episode with the MK2 Arcade Machine and the MK2 Mileena reference.

Always awesome to see references that are related to Mortal Kombat, either from MK for another franchise or vice versa, and this one is no exception.

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In 1994, Midway released one of their most successful and popular games ever, NBA Jam. On top of everything the game had to offer, it also included a ton of Mortal Kombat secrets and Easter Eggs, from references to already-released MK games in Mortal Kombat 1 and Mortal Kombat II, to hints for the release of Mortal Kombat 3 Vanilla which came to fruition the following, to even having several MK characters making to the game as hidden guest characters. These are the 3 playable MK Ninjas of MK2, Reptile, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, along with Raiden. That's not all though, as NBA Jam actually had hidden Fatalities, which could've happen by pushing players from the opposing teams with the MK characters. Guess it is only natural, when there are MK characters and voidance involved, it's gonna go down to Fatalities

And on top of that, this game also had references for other already-existing and future Midway games, such as an advert for WWE WrestleMania: The Arcade Game, which would be released the following year.

That being said, the MK characters have been taken out of later revisions of the game. Thankfully, longtime fighting game YouTuber named Desk has managed to get an earlier version of the game, showcasing how to unlock the MK characters and Fatalities, along with all of the refences and Easter eggs, both that are related and not relegated to MK.

Check out the video from Desk below, enjoy.


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In just above a couple of weeks, Mortal Kombat will celebrate it's 30th anniversary, and we got yet another origins story en route to the occasion, this time from John Tobias, with the main topic being origins of the iconic MK dragon logo, and how it led to various other stuff being given and made for the series, including the Mortal Kombat name.

Tobias starts the story by sharing a recently discovered image of the first drawing of the MK dragon logo, followed by how fellow MK team member, John Vogel, used the digitized graphics system of Mortal Kombat 1 to literally digitize the drawing into the character select screen of the game.

Tobias then shares that the original planned for the game was supposed to be "Dragon Attack", a name that came for a song by the iconic band Queen, of which Ed Boon is huge fan of (and they were even given a reference through Rain's 2nd Fatality in Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate). That is, of course, until both Boon and Tobias changed the title to Mortal Kombat. Tobias also shares that this was the inspiration for using a dragon as the symbol for the tournament, although not as the logo for the whole series at that point yet.

Tobias continues the story by saying that the idea of using the dragon symbol as the overall logo for the series came from a golden dragon statue that was on the desk of Ken Fedesna, the general manager of Midway at the time. This also led to the addition of the golden dragon statue at MK1's Shang Tsung's Throne Room stage as well as the dragon on the side panel for the game's Arcade machine.

As you can see, the original logo had the dragon facing left. However, until Mortal Kombat II, the logo was used facing both sides for the Arcade machines. With Acclaim's console releases of the games, the MK choose to keep only the right version of the logo as they could've only use one for marketing purposes. Tobias then shares that the final design for the dragon icon was an attempt at replicating the yin yang symbol, which represented balancing of the furies- a core part of MK’s early fiction

Tobias ends the story a couple of extra notes: Firstly, he tells the he almost tossed the sketch for the dragon icon thanks for his sister, and finally, he shares a picture of the same golden dragon statue that was used for the logo, that was found by Boon 30 years later.

This is a classic case of the domino effect, as one idea have led to so many other things that we are know and familiar with in the MK series. Looks like the dragon has indeed scorched a ton of land, and marked it's territory by a flame that still burns strong for 30 years, and nothing is going to extinguish that flame.

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The Mortal Kombat series has been full of references and Easter Eggs over the years, both from it's own series and other series as well. This however is one of the cases of another series making a reference to MK.

In The Last of Us Remake, as shown by the Naughty Dog Central Twitter page, there is a shot in which a Mortal Kombat II poster can be seen on the wall. This shot is taken from a cutscene in the Left Behind DLC update for the game.

Keep in mind that this is only seen in the remake, but not in the original game.

A fun fact, one of Naughty Dog's very first games was a fighting game called Way of the Warrior, which was a glorified MK clone, which obviously flopped. Naughty Dog are clearly fans of MK, and perhaps in the spirit of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 30th anniversary, they felt it was the right time to pay homage to the iconic fighting game franchise. And it surely is an awesome one at that.

Credit to Mortal Kombat Online.

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