Hi everyone I'm Jack Red, today I get to review what recently became one of my absolute favorite fighting franchises. I am talking about Rare's answer to both Capcom's Street Fighter & Midway now NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat. Killer Instinct was an unique hybrid that took what made both of those so great with a more ridiculous combo system.
1. Killer Instinct (1994)
I briefly been around this game in the arcades. I did own Killer Instinct on SNES many years ago. More recently thanks to Rare themselves for gifting me Killer Instinct Definite Edition. I got to play the actual arcade game. I would like to take this moment to personally thank you guys so much. For me no MK clone was worth mentioning except Killer Instinct.
Obviously the soundtrack is amazing even for a Rare game. Sure it quickly gets repetitive even on easier difficulties. At the same time, you still got to try your best. Trust me beating this every single time feels very satisfying. You also can play as Eyedol in most versions. I am not sure why the code for Xbox One version isn't working.
The achievements themselves are very well selected. It is one of my favorite fighting games of all time. I am very surprised not many people compared this to Capcom's Darkstalkers. Seriously they are very similar even with the clear differences between them. I just found out those two also came out the same year too.
The roster itself is very interesting for it's time. Back then you didn't have a lot of characters like you do now. The fact we had a dinosaur hybrid creature & a walking skeleton blew my mind. Even on SNES, this game looks absolutely amazing. Some actually prefer the SNES soundtrack over the original arcade version.
My favorite character to this day has always been Fulgore. I knew the moment I seen him on the cover I was going to love him. Fulgore is the sub boss that doesn't hold back at all. Just when you thought the game couldn't get any tougher. You bet it does with Eyedol wow this guy will own you repeatedly.
Sure he does have the fewest moves of all the characters. He can easily get around your combos while you are trying to add more to them. Sometimes he will regenerate some of his health. Most of the damage he delivers is enough to piss a lot of people off. Thankfully after using some character tricks you can defeat him.
I would even say Shao Kahn in most versions of MK3 is easier to predict. Thank god he doesn't require any health at all. Also it is very easy to interrupt him at the right time with either a special move or an uppercut. Basically despite being more aggressive out of the two boss characters. I more recently found that version of Shao Kahn to be more forgiving.
2. Killer Instinct 2 (1996)
This will be me reviewing both the arcade and Killer Instinct Gold on Nintendo 64. Which does alter several things about KI2 on the console. Unlike Killer Instinct 1, there were major changes this time around. Some parts of the levels didn't look nearly as good in the arcade version. Personally I mostly notice a few parts of the background while everything else looks similar enough.
I am playing both versions of KI2 on Xbox One. Both of them has great selection of achievements to keep you busy. Believe it or not, I almost got all of them. Killer Instinct 2 is notably easier than the original. I do like the newer looks of older characters for the most part. The newer character do bring such needed appeal to the game.
Before I go any further Mortal Kombat 4 got release on consoles in 1998. Two years after both versions of KI2. But wait a year later an updated version of MK4 called Mortal Kombat Gold hits Sega Dreamcast. What no Mortal Kombat just ripped off Killer Instinct lol. Based on what I heard of that version, stick with Killer Instinct Gold.
I will say playing as Fulgore is even more fun in this game. Not only the combos are much easier to pull off than in the original. Some of the newer moves Fulgore now has steals the show. This time the final boss is Gargos whose a rival of the last game's final boss Eyedol. I should mention a lot of character went back in time for this new tournament that Ultratech put together.
Gargos is one cheap boss if I ever seen one. Not only he often goes for cheap hits, he also regenerates some of his health. He also can interrupt your combos even at the very beginning if you aren't careful. I was able to play as Gargos in both versions of KI2. Gargos also requires a particular action among his health bar being low to gone.
Usually a correctly done uppercut gets the job done. Sometimes even nailing it doesn't trigger his defeat sequence. This game has some of my favorite songs of the franchise. The finishers aren't as variety as the last game. But do not count them out because they're still entertaining to watch. Killer Instinct 2 is easily the best version to play.
I do need to mention one interesting change Killer Instinct Gold has. I believe this depends on what difficulty you beat the game on. Depending on which difficulty you will get more cheat options. By beating the game on the hardest difficulty gives you codes to completely break the challenge. You can remove blocking altogether for ridiculous combos.
You also can perform finishers as early as your opponent is on their second health bar I'm not kidding. This means you or your opponent could end the match out of the clear blue. This doesn't affect Gargos as much but it does make him much easier. There's more endings in the arcade version. I will say this is a solid follow up but I still prefer the original more.
3. Killer Instinct (2013)
I do need to clarify I haven't got to play a lot of Shadow Lords. Which is season 3's story mode but I played plenty of everything else. To be honest, a lot of gaming stuff keep up that I was very behind on this game. There's a lot of great dlcs with most of the roster. This game really blew my mind how damn good it is.
Killer Instinct pulls another one from Mortal Kombat since they're both reboot games. I will say both of them are very great games. This has three story modes that are done very differently from each other. Season 1 plays just like the previous games while maintaining certain conditions for other endings.
Season 2 is more interesting since it tells much more story. Fulgore was the final boss of Season 1. Although on a strict condition you could face Shadow Jago. A new villain named Aria aka founder of Ultratech is the main antagonist of Season 2. She also fights very different since she is technically three different robots.
Each one has their own health bar that's notably weaker than most of the roster. At the same time, Aria can alter which one gets to fight at any given time. This is a very solid 2D fighting game that truly bring you back to the past. Thankfully to not suck ass like someone we know lol jk. Killer Instinct does make it clear during Shadow Lords that Jago was the one to defeat Gargos in KI2.
I love you can unlock stuff simply by playing. A lot of newer fighting games are doing that now. Same with the new season concept since this was one of the very first fighting games to do that. Basically in a few years, the developers were constantly adding stuff to the game. OMG a lot of these are very worth having.
I still can't believe Killer Instinct has three guest characters whose part of Season 3's roster. We have The Arbiter from Halo series, General Raam from Gears of War series and Rash from Battletoads series. Speaking of Battletoads, I can't wait to play the new game coming next year. Maybe these characters were the reason MK9 wasn't allowed to have an Xbox exclusive character.
Sony ended up with Kratos from God of War series. This is a surprisingly well made game in every possible category. The soundtrack is really good with amazing sound effects. The biggest roster in franchise history. Sure most of the content is dlcs which could be annoying. Thankfully you can get the entire game right now for forty bucks or if you wait closer to Christmas possibly cheaper.
I grew up with the original on SNES loving it like no tomorrow. I really felt that nostalgia coming back the moment I started playing. This is hands down one of the absolute greatest fighting games I have ever played. There's plenty of colors you can change your characters to. Ultra has gone even more ridiculous than ever before.
More recently Ultimates got added to the game. Last seen in the original Killer Instinct. Where it sorta similar to some way to MK3's Brutalities since they start with a short combo. Then they do a finishing move that kills their opponents. Sadly you can't kill anyone but stage finishers are still present.
Killer Instinct is also a part of Xbox Anywhere program. Which means if you downloaded it like I did. After connecting your Xbox account to a Windows 10 computer. You can now play the game on both of them. As of right now the only other game I can do that with is Resident Evil VII: Biohazard. Every single mode will keep you busy for hours.
There is one important fact that a lot of people don't realize. Originally a different team that made alright games worked on this. Around Season 2, a decision was made to bring in Iron Galaxy. They are recently known for porting some of Capcom games while adding some new stuff. For example there's a lot of in game challenges you can do.
You will be able to see exactly what level both you the player & whatever character you selected. This means going for a lot of achievements much more fun. Speaking of those, this has one of the absolute most achievements in my entire Xbox One collection I'm not kidding. The only two to have more was Rare Replay and The Walking Dead Collection.
Overall this was a solid trilogy of games. Each one in more ways than one got me more into fighting games. Killer Instinct took what I already loved about the original then took it to a totally new level. Just like Mortal Kombat 9 did in it's own right. There's just so much to do that I'm very thankful Rare gifted me this game.
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