Yes this was a legitimate way to create characters back in the early 90s. So this isn't laziness on my part, it's a statement about the process of video game design in a bygone era. LOL

My ladies Kitana and Jade in MK2 garb.
edit:

pointed out to me that they did this because of memory limitations on those dinosaur cartridges. Kind of like how in RPGs they had like 8 palette swaps of the same enemy--that red hellhound you encounter at level 80? Waaay harder than the identical blue hellhound you trounced at level 10 lol.
the fact that Jade was a secrete character you could fight was enough of a motivation, however I only remember running into Smoke
true not even the fact that all the male ninjas [except Reptile and Subzero] were different versions of Scorpion made a difference...then again you can never have enough scorpion =]
Do you plan on doing one for Noob Saibot?