A huge fan of
Prince, Boon's inspiration for the character was the 1984 track
Purple Rain, coupled with his jokingly wondering what color palette had not yet been used in the games. In another nod to the singer, Rain addresses himself as "Prince of Edenia" in
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. By the time Boon had decided to include him as a selectable in UMK3, the game was already completed, so due to time constraints he had to hack into the attract mode to insert a snippet of the character as an unplayable red herring who was a purple
palette swap of
Scorpion, while creating a new font for displaying his name in his power bar; therefore, it is the only one in the game that is not italicized.