Secrets and rumors were always an extra part of the fun when it came to games in the early-to-mid 90s. Before this Internet thing came along, gamers didn't have a way to confirm or debunk rumors in seconds. We had to keep playing until we proved the rumor or ended up looking like jackasses – and we loved it. Fortunately, the Mortal Kombat series was never lacked when it came to wacky suggestions that ended up being a total sham. It's Mortal Monday, folks! Let's have a Top Ten Rumors and Secrets for Mortal Kombat.

10. Mortal Kombat II Pong

How freaky would it be to play a game and have it suddenly switch to something completely out of context and retro? Ed Boon and Jon Tobias thought that this concept would be hilarious and stuck Pong in Mortal Kombat II. Players would have to play 250 games of VS matches before getting the opportunity to play this classic. 1990s Pong goodness!

9. Zebron

As fans eagerly awaited the return of Mortal Kombat with Deadly Alliance, Ed Boon posted a sketch of a humanoid zebra on his official website. Confused and bewildered, fans wondered if this would be a character in the new MK 5 – as it was known at the time.

The Zebron concept art was eventually added into Krypt Koffin “ZE” in Deadly Alliance with the comment “We would never do a Zebra guy… or would we?” More of these concept sketches were littered throughout the Krypt to either reinforce or trick fans into believing that Zebron was once going to be a reality. So what would he do? Eat grass?

8. Meat – Mortal Kombat 4

What would be a good way to create a fair-sized frenzy for a new title in a series? How about promoting an incredibly strange character in the most obscure way without explaining how to access it? This is what the MK team did in Mortal Kombat 4 with Meat – a bloody skeleton palette swap.

Meat would replace any character chosen after the player defeated all challengers in Group Mode, but there was still much to be answered. Fans heavily debated for years whether Meat was a real character in the MK universe or simply something fun that was added to MK4. The popularity of this mystery was so great that Meat was finally added to the roster in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

7. Sexual Fatalities?

It probably started out as some sick rumor by a kid who was extremely lonely, but speak of sexual fatalities in Mortal Kombat II did exist. With absolutely no proof and nobody stupid enough to believe such nonsense, the rumor quickly died – but not soon enough for some classy folks at Data East to make Tattoo Assassins and rip the idea off.

But wait, what about Killer Instinct? Orchid, you naughty girl…

6. Toasty/Smoke

Most Mortal Kombat II fans believed that the image of Dan Forden popping onto the screen with the line “Toasty!” was just a fun addition that meant nothing. Little did they know that if they saw “Toasty” on the Portal stage and held down while pressing the start button, they would be instantly pitted against Smoke, a secret character in the game.

Since then, both “Toasty” and Smoke have both been major parts of the Mortal Kombat franchise.

But yet nobody ever mentions “Frosty!”

5. Kano Transformations

Not satisfied with the insane amounts of rumors with the first Mortal Kombat game, Boon and Tobias decided to add a little spice to MK II and purposely plant the material needed to start a crazy rumor.

A line of text under the diagnostics screen was supposed to track the number of Kano Transformations. Kano obviously wasn’t in the game, and Shang Tsung had no reported way to transform into him. The creators of MK got what they wanted: a feeding frenzy of rabid fans slamming down the quarters in attempt to find the truth. Little did they know that they’d been had again.

4. Survival Mode – Shaolin Monks

This was a rumor that people hammered on for several months with no proof that it existed and no method of unlocking it. Yet several users at MortalKombatOnline.com continued to swear that Survival Mode was real. Those who wanted to believe continued to hope while the pessimists laughed at such a claim. But then it happened…

A good six months after the game was released, Survival Mode was finally cracked open. Thanks to the endless research of MKO users, proof of Survival Mode was recorded with a method to unlock it. Baffled, the MK community was overjoyed that for once a MK-related rumor was reality to begin with. Yay.

3. Animalities

A large rumor circulated through the arcades that characters could morph into animals in Mortal Kombat II. This rumor was possibly based around the fact that Liu Kang performed a dragon transformation in one of his fatalities. The rumor continued to float around for a year or so, but there was no proof to show the skeptics.

Midway enjoyed the idea so much that Animalities became reality in MK III. And they were horrible. Even horrible enough to be centered around for the end of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

2. Reptile

The biggest of all MK secrets was none other than the fight against Reptile in the first Mortal Kombat. Players had to achieve a double flawless victory, never press block, and execute a fatality on The Pit stage to face off against the mysterious green ninja.

The popularity of this mysterious character allowed Reptile to return in Mortal Kombat II with his own moveset and fatalities. All hail the yummy head snack.

AND NUMBER 1!

Ermac

Not to be outshined by Reptile, the granddaddy of all MK rumors was a simple misunderstanding.

Under the diagnostics screen for the original Mortal Kombat arcade machine was a line that kept track of the number of error macros that had occurred in the game – or ermacs as it was listed. Players didn't quite understand things that way. They believed that this was proof that another hidden character was waiting to be discovered in the game.

The frenzy was on as players endlessly attempted to confirm that Ermac existed. They wrote to Gamepro, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and even Midway trying to get anyone to reveal that Ermac did in fact exist. Midway publicly debunked the rumor, but EGM fired up the controversy after posting a sham article where someone had supposedly unlocked Ermac. With the article was a doctored photo of the SNES Scorpion sprite.

Still pestered with questions about the rumor, Midway planted an anagram at the end of the credits screen for MK II that read "CEAMR ODSE NTO EXITS" or "Ermac Does Not Exist." The furious search for Ermac finally died down, and the character did finally come to life later in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Thanks for joining me for another Mortal Monday right here at Screwattack.com. Enjoy your Memorial Day, American g1s!