essential title to grab for any serious fan of fighting games." In 2014, Kevin Wong of Complex wrote: "Today, we remember Mortal Kombat II for its anarchic spirit—the game was endlessly intriguing and weird, and it had an uneasy atmosphere—anything could happen at any given moment. Critics derided Mortal Kombat as meaningless shock value, but its sequel proved those naysayers wrong. Mortal Kombat II was a Flawless Victory—irreverent, hilarious, and horrific in equal measures." Legacy On December 26, 2022, the source code for the game, which included cut content, was uploaded online to GitHub. In response, on January 6, 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery sent a DMCA take down notice to GitHub, and public access to the repository was disabled as a result. The leaker then created a new repository titled "not-mk2" which contained the "Controversies" section of the NetherRealm Studios article on Wikipedia. Rumored content While many games have been subject to urban legends about secret features and unlockable content, these kinds of myths were particularly rampant among the dedicated fan community of Mortal Kombat in connection with Mortal Kombat II. According to GameSpy, "the [arcade gaming] community was abuzz about myriad secrets both true and false." The game's creators did little to dispel those rumors that included supposed "Nudality" or "Sexuality" finishing moves for Kitana and Mileena, Shang Tsung's ability to transform into Kano and Goro, a chance to fight Sonya after defeating Jade in a specific way, and "Hornbuckle" being featured as an additional secret character. Some of them were eventually implemented in subsequent MK games. Among these rumors to be adapted later were the Animalities (used in Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates) and an ability to throw an opponent into the mouth of a tree in the Living Forest stage (first used in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks). Rumored characters included a red female ninja character (actually just a glitch that reportedly turned Kitana's outfit from blue to red), who was dubbed "Scarlet" by fans and was officially introduced as Skarlet in 2011's Mortal Kombat,Another Glitch Character Becomes Reality With Mortal Kombat's Skarlet DLC , Siliconera, May 31, 2011. and the male ninja Ermac that originated from a misinterpreted indicator in the original game's audits menu, and was teased in MKII before finally becoming playable in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. A nameless, flaming palette swap of Liu Kang seen in the background of the Pit II stage,