When Hacking Goes Wrong: Dragon Hat Liu Kang

Channel:

AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on April 27, 2021 8:48:09 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k50eRA1bCYM

Game:

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005)

Duration: 2:50

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As any real Mortal Kombat fan will tell you, the original design for Liu Kang had him with a dragon balanced on the top of his head. It was actually this dragon which was originally going to fire his fireball projectiles, amongst other powers. Originally created by John Tobias, Ed Boon eventually intervened and scrapped it, calling it "a really fucking dumb idea", and then proceeded to powerbomb Tobias through a table. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Intriguingly, data still exists within the game which makes reference towards this original design. According to Boon in a recent documentary:

"We'd hired a guy, seemed really talented, name of Jan Tobiasz. Everything was going pretty smoothly in terms of development, but for some reason in one team meeting he was absolutely insistent on having Liu Kang have a dragon on his head. It was that particular moment when I realised that he was actually just Tobias wearing a fake moustache and putting on a Polish accent. Sussed out, his eyes widened and he screamed "It's coming right at us!", before he dove out of a window. Anyway, that's the last I've seen of him since."

To this day, no one's entirely sure why Tobias was so insistent on this particular design. Maybe he knew something we didn't? Maybe the series would have been all the better for it? Who knows. Regardless, it's just nice that a game which made reference to most of the old rumours and secret bothered to include this, if only in dummied out data. Shame we never got a proper Hornbuckle, but I guess they just didn't have time to implement everything and had to settle eventually.

Next up, another vid like this.

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