When Mortal Kombat took the world by storm in 1992, one figure in particular loomed largely over the entire arcade! The legend of Goro created one of the game's most iconic images, but as John Tobias has revealed with original concept art -- that image could've been different in one significant way!

The mythology of the reigning Shokan Champion was as important as his in-game presentation. This ultimate sub-boss was an ancient half-man, half-dragon promising to pummel players into coinless submission. As we can see in the original artwork shared to Twitter, that iconic four-armed silhouette almost included another appendage: a dragon tail!

The series co-creator remarks, "I thought I remembered at one point we considered giving #MortalKombat ‘s Goro a dragon’s tail... found some old sketches circa 1991..." He went on to add, "BTW... I’m glad we did not give Goro a tail ..."

The sketches show the familar, powerful visage of Goro with different expressions, and the addition of the tail. [It's] a small change in the scheme of things, but one that could've had a ripple effect on the series, which eventually came to include a more literal, tailed dragon boss in the form of The Dragon King - Onaga.

In an interview with MK Online, Tobias explained drawing inspiration from legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen in the creation of Goro, noting: "We wanted to have a brutish character as our boss and I remember thinking of the old Ray Harryhausen films like Jason and The Argonauts and their use of stop-motion animation as being the perfect remedy. I thought it would work well for us because our characters already had limited sets of animation, so a stop-motion puppet would fit right in."

In 2013, Ed Boon recovered the original stop-motion model from storage after flooding hit Chicago. The Shokan bosses are now on display at NetherRealm Studios, along with the animatronic head created for the 1995 film.

What do you think about Goro with a tail? Share your thoughts about the iconic sub-boss in the comments below and telestomp into the 2D Kombat Klassics forum for more retro rumblings!