Edit (April 2nd): Is this a joke? You bet it is! Video game movies might play it fast and loose but we weren't fooling anybody with this hastily assembled cinematic April Fool! Fans of 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man spotted this fake from a mile-off, but did you identify all six tricks? Make your boast in the comments below, and have more fun revisiting classic MK April Fool pranks!

A follow-up to the most recent Mortal Kombat feature film was on the cards as soon as it was released, and with a franchise anniversary looming later this year, it seems the hotly anticipated sequel has already begun shooting in secret. Warning - the following post contains spoilers:

Edit: Are you ducking kidding? Of course we are! We went three layers deep to imbed this year's April Fool within an April Fool within an April Fool Tower -- but you knew all along! You just can't fool a Mortal Kombat Online reader - their source of MK news keeps them too reliably informed! We hope you had a quacking good time with our little joke, all the same. You never know - maybe one of these days they really will give us a new MK secret! If they do, you'll read about it on MK Online - so stay tuned!

Players with fully updated versions of Mortal Kombat XL are discovering a timely surprise to go with the April Fools Premier Tower. Along with the mind bending challenges of the latest Living Tower; fans are discovering two new visitors to The Kove stage!

The visitors come in the form of a mysterious ninja and a giant shark, who appear at seemingly random intervals in the background when fighting at The Kove. The sightings started roughly when the April Fool Tower went live. Screenshots follow:

Edit Apr. 2: What the duck?! While we may have seen hoaxes like Ermac, rumors like Skarlet, and obscurities like Tremor make it to the modern roster - Aquilluxborg Hydroxybot has not been given that honor! Like water off a duck's back, you of course knew this was merely our annual April Fools gag! This article and its basic contents were a fabrication. NetherRealm Studios will be spotlighting MKX Mobile on today's Kombat Kast, though, so keep an eye out for it! Otherwise, have fun and keep listening for the quack that echoes!

Ahead of tomorrow's Kombat Kast live preview of Mortal Kombat X Mobile -- the first cross-platform unlockable character has been revealed! Aquilluxborg Hydroxybot joins the fight via iOS & Android with a character render and mini-bio!

Yesterday, we turned the spotlight on Sean Cantrell and his magnificent Mortal Kombat Lego. His blocky, toy inspired renders showed what might be if the world of Mortal Kombat were mere bricks and blocks. It was a wonderful proof of concept -- but what if you want to actually play with your toys?

Del Cottonwood is another industrious fan who has adapted the brutal world of Mortal Kombat into a simpler, blockier realm. Like Cantrell, he's adapted vast swaths of the Kombat cast, but in this case, they're downloadable skins for free-to-play sandbox sensation: Minecraft!

You would've had to have been lost in a pixelated underground cavern for the past few years to not know what Minecraft is. Launched in 2011; the stylized pixelated sandbox gives you a world of sky, water and earth to do with as you please. Its success has taken it to home consoles and driven an empire of paid alternatives, but the principle remains the same. Check out some of our favourites Minecraft Kombatants below:

It's been a long time since Reptile compelled quarter stuffers to look moonward, or Smoke and Jade shared a private joke behind a talking tree, but the element of secrets hasn't left Mortal Kombat entirely. While other franchises begin to abandon the long practiced chase of unlockable characters, MK keeps one foot in the shadows, taunting a rabid fanbase all the way to the end date and beyond.

Yesterday, Mortal Kombat Online enjoyed a customary April Fools rib. The lure of DLC additions and discarded characters may be rooted in truth, but you weren't fooled so easily. For MK fans of the past, however, it hasn't always been so easy to discern truth from fiction.

For fans eager to squeeze a little more out of obscurity, characters like Tremor and Wu Lae remain a luring prospect. Even the likes of Hydro -- a water-themed Lin Kuei character, created by Malibu Comics -- have fought for renewed existence, getting as far as a cameo appearance in the final Mortal Kombat: Legacy [last year]. There is another class of character, however, who contributes to the MK mythology as much, without ever actually having existed -- the rumored, or prank character.

With a long and storied history of humor characters and discarded near-misses, April 1st seemed like an appropriate time to take stock of some of the kombatants who nearly rejoined the franchise in its most recent iteration. Afterall, April officially marks the first anniversary of the game that relaunched the franchise, in 2011!

EDIT (Apr. 2): Did we fool you? Of course not, you're far too brilliant for that! You've gotta admit, we made it easy for you, this year. Thanks to Pedro Cruz for his involvement in our annual fooly fool. Make sure you don't miss our lookback at some of the classic fake characters and April Fools in our latest feature article! See you next year!

In an exclusive reveal for Mortal Kombat Online, NetherRealm Studios have provided design sketches for four characters who nearly made it in, but were omitted in the eleventh hour. They represent all tiers of the new and old -- unused fan-favourites, a long rumored joke character, and a brand new fighter, never before seen. Don't get too discouraged, either.

WB Assistant Community Manager, Elisa Profillo, advises that while there is no official announcement to be made yet, copies of Mortal Kombat and the recent Komplete Edition [released Feb. 28], are both able to support mutually available downloadable content.