Most Mortal Kombat characters don't get their start as an inside joke, but Rain proves to be a rare exception. The developers initially put Rain into the opening sequence of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as a red herring. The character was not actually playable but put in there to keep people playing long enough to try to unlock him. The purple ninja's name is a shout-out to none other than Prince ("Purple Rain" get it?). Rain eventually got his own backstory, move set and sweet updated digs.
