Mortal Kombat classic
Mortal Kombat was a staple of arcade gaming in the 1990s Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

We don't normally condone button-bashing in video games, but sometimes it has its uses. YouTuber YourMKArcadeSource – otherwise known as Mike – managed to unlock hidden menus in the arcade version of Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3 after entering a series of seemingly random button presses.

According to Gizmodo, the menus have remained undiscovered in the machines for more than 20 years after being personally programmed in by Mortal Kombat creator Ed J Boon. The menus allow players to run diagnostics on the machine, unlock hidden characters and watch every "fatality" kill in the game, something you can usually only do once they've beaten the game on the hardest setting. There's also something called the Penacho/Miller Game, which resembles an insanely difficult Space Invaders clone.

"These have been previously undiscovered. Even Ed Boon himself has tweeted that there are still items in the first three MK games that no-one has discovered yet," said Mike. "I believe this is what he is talking about."

The videos have already racked up more than 550,000 views on YouTube, proving that there's still an appetite for the Mortal Kombat series' retro brand of ultra violence.