According to Ed Boon, the main characters are all caricatures of some of their favorite characters from martial arts and sci-fi movies:
- Kano, with his infra-red eye, is based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's make-up in द टर्मिनेटर (1984).
- Liu Kang is, obviously, the likeness of Bruce Lee.
- Johnny Cage is based on Jean-Claude Van Damme.
- Raiden, the electric God of thunder, is based on a lightening-wielding character from Big Trouble in Little China (1986).
- Sonya was loosely based on martial arts star Cynthia Rothrock.
- The Sorcerer Shang Tsung, is based on Lo-Pan, the primary antagonist from Big Trouble in Little China (1986).
- Reptile, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero, the ninjas, are based on the American ninjas from Enter the Ninja (1981), American Ninja (1985) or Ninja Ryû Ken-den (1988).
The game was made by a crew of only four people.
Graphically violent and gory, it became a lightning rod for congressional debates on video game violence and lead to the eventual creation of Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB).
Originally, creators Ed Boon and John Tobias wanted to make a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a digitized version of him fighting villains. Unfortunately, he was already in negotiations with another video game company, so that plan was scrapped. They created the character Johnny Cage as an homage to him. Van Damme would later appear in Mortal Kombat 1 (2023) as a selectable skin for Johnny Cage.
When this game was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, all the blood and gore was removed. At the time, Nintendo considered themselves to be a "family" entertainment company and decided not to include any of the controversial blood. The Sega MegaDrive/Genesis version of the game was also censored, as there was a lot of controversy over the violence in the game - but Sega which was more of a "Gamer-friendly" company hid a secret code in the game that allowed the blood and gore to be re-inserted.
Ed Boon, Dan Forden, John Tobias, John Vogel: Photos of various staff members' heads from Ed Boon to John Tobias to John Vogel are shown as severed heads impaled on spikes in the Pit Bottom (below the Pit I stage).