Who Influences The Influencers?

30 years after its release, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon said to Game Informer, "I think you could think of it as it was four guys in their 20s, completely inspired by action movies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and just mashing up all of those ideas and wouldn't it be cool moments into a fighting game, let loose and basically allowed to do what they wanted to do. You know, four guys in their 20s making a game and nobody's telling them what to do. That's the result of what Mortal Kombat is."

Together with Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat essentially created the fighting game genre we know today, but how did its creators design the iconic characters we know and love today? And what influenced Ed Boon and John Tobias to create one of the most influential games ever created?