While retail versions of video games contain the final effort from years of labor, their source code tells a much grander history of how titles are built and how they evolved.
It appears that the source code for Mortal Kombat 2 has been leaked online, which quickly led to the community discovering over a dozen (so far) files containing cut animations and sprites from the game’s development.
Twitter user Pegasus Kid began documenting these exciting discovering and sharing them with added context as to what the unused assets were likely to be used for.
The first character highlighted is Johnny Cage, who is shown to have what appears to be an unfinished Fatality animation as well as his original Mortal Kombat knee attack and entirely new punch that ended up scrapped.
The MK1 Knee! I wonder why this one wasn’t used, in the original MK2 he just did one kick, however strangely enough Baraka had a feature for a double kick mini-kombo, I wonder if he was meant to have something like that as well… pic.twitter.com/qH8RsN8XJ3
— Pegasus Kid (@annoyingdog322) December 27, 2022
Pegasus Kid also makes the interesting observation that Cage’s pants have the logo for Otomix on them, which was removed for the final game.
And another interesting thing to note here, is that these sprites actually still have the “Otomix” logo! I wonder if these could be used to restore the original Cage look in maybe… MK2+? 👀
— Pegasus Kid (@annoyingdog322) December 27, 2022
Buried among the files, another unused Fatality sprite for Shao Kahn that’s just a giant fist coming down from the heavens. This one was apparently found within the base game though they were messed up, so now fans have access to the original asset according to Pegasus Kid.
And as a bonus round… Shao Kahn’s big hand from a scrapped fatality where he would put his hand in a portal and it would come out of the top of the screen, crushing P2! This one was messed up in the original sprite rips for the game, now not anymore! pic.twitter.com/HA8tf7Avzc
— Pegasus Kid (@annoyingdog322) December 27, 2022
As for other unearthed attacks, there is an incomplete combo for Kung Lao, some sort of spin for Kitana, an animation named “Short Zap” for Raiden, and then a backfist plus double kick made for Liu Kang.
#11 Kitana’s Spin found! I think this one was meant for her fatality or possibly a scrapped fan-spin special move? pic.twitter.com/VvipPwPrML
— Pegasus Kid (@annoyingdog322) December 27, 2022
And then there’s the more odd / fascinating discoveries like Reptile’s jumping Acid Spit and a sprite of Scorpion with blue skin with a currently unknown purpose.
#6 Never seen before Reptile Air Acid Spit found! It makes sense they considered this one as they also considered Sub-Zero to have an air move as well, I wonder if they planned one for Scorpion too… pic.twitter.com/Giqo9QGE3Q
— Pegasus Kid (@annoyingdog322) December 27, 2022
This is all just what was shared publicly within the first day of the MK2 source code going online, so it’s going to be very interesting to see what else the online community uncovers.
The discovery of Mortal Kombat 2’s source code should prove to be quite valuable for a variety of different purposes including those who want the best possible / original assets from the game or just learning more about the history of one of the most iconic titles in all of fighting games.
You can check out more of Mortal Kombat 2’s cut and unused content in Pegasus Kid’s full Twitter thread.