Killer Instinct
Encyclopedia
Killer Instinct is a fighting game
developed by Rare and published by Midway
and Nintendo
. Initially released in arcades
in 1994, and rumored to use an "Ultra 64
" hardware engine, in reality the proprietary arcade hardware was co-developed by Rare and Midway. The game received a high profile launch on the Super Nintendo
, as well as on the Game Boy
. Its popularity led to a sequel, Killer Instinct 2
.
and is also inspired by the finishing moves from Mortal Kombat. There are also several features that distinguish it from other franchises:
, have replaced all governments) which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct. Along with regular participants, experimental creatures created by Ultratech also fight in the tournament so their strength can be tested. Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and releases a two-headed, one-eyed, satyr
monster called Eyedol from this dimensional prison.
A Tibetian monk following the Tiger Spirit, which later turns out to be Gargos in the second Killer Instinct
, is on the path of enlightenment to defeat the evil within him. He believes it is his destiny to destroy Ultratech. He has many of the same moves as Street Fighter
's Ryu
and Ken
characters, including the fireball (which he calls Endokuken) and spinning uppercut. His No Mercy moves consist of stabbing the enemy with his sword and meditating to have a car fall on the opponent.
Count Von Sabrewulf is stricken by lycanthropy
, and is promised a cure by Ultratech if he wins the tournament. This is a semi-cameo appearance of Sabreman, known from Rare's 1984 game Sabre Wulf
. Sabrewulf fights in his inherited castle as his stage level, with biting and claw attacks, and the ability to howl and use his Flaming Bats, though sometimes they will not be flaming. He has two No Mercy moves: one where he slams the foe into the screen, and one in which he stabs the enemy with an elongated claw.
A former heavyweight boxing champion for five years. He was stripped of his title and kicked out of the circuit when it was discovered that his arms had cybernetic implants which greatly helped his boxing ability. Ultratech promises him his title will be returned if he wins the tournament. Combo has two No Mercy moves: one where he snaps the opponent's neck, and the other where he punches the opponent into the screen.
A Native American
Chief, armed with twin tomahawks
, who enters the tournament to find out what happened to his missing brother Eagle in the previous year's tournament. He has two No Mercy moves: in the first he calls down a bolt of lightning to strike the enemy, and in the second he knocks the opponent into the air leaving various objects behind (depending on the opponent). Chief thunder is at the bottom of the character tier due to his faulty move set, notably his special ax spin attack being completely breakable, limiting his unbreakable combo options at everything other than at direct face-to-face range.
Hired by Ultratech as a secretary, she is actually a spy
working for an unknown party and, along with her brother Jago, appears to be the heroine of the video game franchise. She has two No Mercy moves: The first in which she gives her opponent an apparent heart attack by unzipping her top and flashing her breast
s at them (though away from the camera) - however, if the opponent is also Orchid, the opponent Orchid will just stomp the ground in spite; and the other in which she turns the opponent into a frog and then (at the player's option) stomps on them.
A criminal who was promised early release by Ultratech in exchange for participating in chemical weapons research. As a result of an accident during testing, his body is composed entirely of flame. He is promised a return to his original form if he is able to defeat Glacius in the tournament. In the early development stages of the game his name was Meltdown, but this was soon changed to Cinder. He has two No Mercy moves: the first creates a pool of magma under the opponent, who melts into it; the second shoots the victim with flames to reduce him or her to ashes. Other than Eyedol, Killer Instincts boss character, Cinder is the strongest fighter. Some of Cinder's most useful moves include turning invisible (though his shadow is visible on most levels), and becoming immune to projectile attacks (until he is damaged by a physical attack). Cinder also contains an air-based attack that is easily abused.
A genetically engineered velociraptor
-human hybrid created as a prototype by Ultratech. The tournament serves to test its abilities as a killing machine. It has three No Mercy moves: one in which it spits acid on the enemy, one in which it stabs the foe with its tail, and one in which it runs at the enemy and eats them. Riptor is a high-tier character that, like Cinder, possesses a special attack that can be abused easily (breathing out a low green flame that is unblockable to any opponent attempting to lift him or herself off of the ground, with the exception of Eyedol); this is due to a hitbox bug that is common throughout the game.
An alien who was captured by Ultratech and promised freedom if he wins the tournament. He gets his nickname from his body's icy liquid composition and ability to shapeshift. He is one of the few characters that maintained his original name throughout early development. He uses three different No Mercy moves: [arcade only] one where he becomes a gel-like mass and absorbs the opponent (similar to the Blob), one in which he uses his finger as a syringe to inject the enemy with a substance that turns them to ice, and the last of which he turns into a pool of boiling water that the enemy drowns in. Glacius is a high-tier character who, like most characters in Killer Instinct, has moves that can be abused. Some of these said moves include Glacius reversing his liquidation attack at the last possible moment. This forces the opponent to have to guess on which side he will appear. Another glitch includes Glacius' fireball attack, a delayed burst of fireballs that, along with heavy damage, is extremely difficult to defend against.
Spinal, an animated skeleton, is the third to last opponent in the Single Player mode and carries a sword and shield, and has the ability to teleport and physically morph himself into a grayscale
version of his opponents during combos. He has an odd quirk in that, in order to perform certain moves, he must gather energy (represented by tokens shaped like skulls under his life bar in the SNES version, and by skulls floating around his person in the arcade and gold versions) by either absorbing opponents projectile energy attacks (with his shield in absorbing position), or performing combo breakers. Despite requiring these tokens, his special moves are not particularly stronger than normal special attacks. He can store up to five skull tokens, to the point of overloading if he attempts to absorb energy for the sixth time. On the sixth shield absorb, Spinal will not block the projectile and it will also cause normal damage along with knockdown; Spinal will then be left with one remaining skull. He uses two No Mercy moves: one where he repeatedly stabs the enemy with a spike on his shield, and another where he summons ghostly skeletal hands to drag his opponent underground. In the SNES version, the latter move was changed to him simply summoning a bolt of lightning to strike down his opponent.
Only a year old, Fulgore is a cyborg, part of a cybernetic project developed by Ultratech, the masterminds behind the Killer Instinct fighting tournament, and the penultimate opponent in the Single Player mode. Fulgore is always placed second on the tier before Eyedol. Fulgore was entered into the tournament to test its fighting capabilities. If successful, the Fulgore unit would be placed in mass production. He has two No Mercy moves: one in which it removes its head, revealing a large turret-like gun which shoots the enemy repeatedly; the other uses a laser beam from its eyes to reduce the opponent to ashes.
The final boss
, Eyedol is a two-headed, one-eyed, ancient mystical warlord who was trapped in a dimensional prison in the distant past. Ultratech released him to be the final combatant in the tournament. It is shown in Killer Instinct 2
that the person Eyedol was trapped in combat with was Gargos, the final boss of that game. Eyedol is the only character that does not have an icon in the character select screen (but in early SNES versions of the game released only to stores, he was selectable); however, in both the arcade and SNES versions, he is a secret character
that can be played as by selecting a specific character (Riptor in earlier arcade versions and Cinder in later arcade versions and in the SNES version) and pressing a combination of buttons before a round begins. He is also the only character in the game with no special finishing moves, such as No Mercy moves, Ultra Combos, or Humiliations that the other characters possess; however, he more than compensates for this lack of ability with a limited ability to heal (CPU only).
sprites for characters, created with Silicon Graphics, Inc. computers and the backgrounds were pre-rendered as a "movie," which simply adjusted frames based on the current location of the players. All this data was stored on the hard drive. Killer Instinct's R4600
processor was clocked at 100 MHz.
port was released. While it has many of the features the arcade version had, many features were altered, downsampled, or removed. The graphic detail was vastly reduced and the character sprites were smaller. The stages with a 3D
panning camera were simplified into a 2D
panning view using parallax scrolling for the background and mode 7
for the ground or arena, simulating thus, a pseudo-3D effect. Zooming and scaling were removed. Some of the stages were redesigned. The full motion videos that showed the characters after a victory were replaced by still images. Voice samples and sound effects were severely limited, whether shortened or missing altogether.
Most of the characters preserved their special moves and danger moves. However, some of the special graphical effects — notably the shadow move effect — were removed. In addition, the skulls that surround Spinal when he absorbs projectiles are shown under his energy bar instead. To make up for the loss of overall quality, some other modes were added, such as a training mode, a tournament mode (used for multi-player purposes), and other options. The SNES game was packaged in a black casing in Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States, as instead of the standard grey shell.
port was also made, but sacrifices were necessary due to the system's limitations. As a result, neither Cinder nor Riptor appear, and the moves were heavily altered due to the more limited controls of the portable. The game supports some coloring when played in a Super Game Boy
. Super Game Boy also allowed for a two player versus match to be played by inserting a second controller. Sabrewulf's moves were also altered severely.
, titled Killer Instinct Gold, was eventually released for the system.
soundtrack CD featuring original music from Killer Instinct was released as a pack-in for the Super Nintendo release of the game.
(the other editors' ratings were 8, 6 and 6).Video Games Issue 81 (October 1995), page 87
In retrospective, Killer Instinct was ranked as the #148 best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power
s Top 200 Games list in 2006. In 2008, Screwattack
listed it as the #5 best fighting game of all time, and as the #19 best Super Nintendo game of all time. In 2010, the game was included in the list of "Top 25 Fighting Games of All Time" by UGO
.
Despite the good reviews by many, Killer Instinct is often criticized for its serious game play issues, and is regularly used as a textbook example of a brilliant game that has suffered greatly due to poor debugging and testing. The character balance is very poor due to some characters having overpowered glitches, disjointed attack ranges and hitbox errors, inequality in number of low fierce openers available to each character, among other things. The arcade version was notorious for its "ender juggle" glitch, which was incredibly easy to learn and would allow players to repeatedly juggle their opponent in the air until the fight was over. There was also a problem with holding down-back and pressing medium punch; if one intended a low medium and the opponent crouched, the fake overhead would come out instead. The Super Nintendo version corrected this and many other issues, and is generally considered to be the more refined released of the game - character balance was improved, and many game-breaking glitches were removed. Despite the improvements, the Super Nintendo release still suffers from glitches and game play errors that were never corrected when being ported over to console, as well as problems endemic to that release alone.
, Rare studio manager, Mark Betteridge, revealed that Rare would like to bring Killer Instinct to Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
developed by Rare and published by Midway
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
. Initially released in arcades
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
in 1994, and rumored to use an "Ultra 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
" hardware engine, in reality the proprietary arcade hardware was co-developed by Rare and Midway. The game received a high profile launch on the Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, as well as on the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
. Its popularity led to a sequel, Killer Instinct 2
Killer Instinct 2
Killer Instinct 2 is a 1996 arcade-only fighting game developed by Rare, licensed by Nintendo, and manufactured by Midway.KI2 is the sequel to Killer Instinct , an arcade game which was also ported to the SNES...
.
Gameplay
Killer Instinct plays like many other fighting games, in which the player controls a character in order to beat an opponent in a one-on-one encounter. The game borrows the attack set of Street FighterStreet Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
and is also inspired by the finishing moves from Mortal Kombat. There are also several features that distinguish it from other franchises:
- A double energy bar: instead of winning two rounds, each player has two bars of energy. If a character finishes with his or her opponent's first life bar, the fight stops and resumes like a round, but the winning character still keeps whatever amount of energy he or she had at that moment. The player who depletes his or her opponent's second life bar wins the bout.
- Automatic combos: rather than press the necessary buttons in order to deliver the individual attacks that form a combo, in Killer Instinct the combos are automated and can be enabled by inputting a determined button or special move (which led to the character to deliver a string of hits).
- Finishing moves: Bearing resemblance to Mortal Kombats Fatalities, each character has at least two moves known as No Mercy (Danger Move in later revisions) in order to finish the opponent in a violent manner. One of these No Mercy moves can be executed at the end of a combo (which is labeled as an Ultimate combo), when the opponents life bar flashes red (when his or her second bar is going to be depleted), although it uses a different combination of movements. Another finisher is the HumiliationHumiliationHumiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have...
, that forces the opponent to dance (the dance style depends on the character), but this can only be used if the player has his or her first life bar. - Ultra Combo: Another finisher; it operates like an Ultimate combo, though this one allows the character to deliver a long string of hits as the combo finisher instead, usually surpassing 20 hits, and can sometimes reach upwards of 80 hits.
- Combo Breaker: The player who is being caught in a combo may break out of it by performing a combo breaker move. The combo breaker is a designated special move of the player's character. A combo can be broken at either the auto-double or linker stage. To successfully break an auto-double, the player must use the breaker move at a strength lower than the auto-double itself (i.e. for a player to break a Medium auto-double s/he must use a Quick breaker). The combo can also be broken at the linker stage. At this stage the player can use any strength of breaker, making long combos a risky affair. Also, after performing a combo breaker, a white starburst will appear at the tip of the breaker's health bar, enabling advanced versions of some special moves that require a different command (e.g. Jago, instead of a regular green fireball, can shoot a red fireball).
Story
Ultratech is a very powerful megacorporation (entities which, in this future settingParallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
, have replaced all governments) which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct. Along with regular participants, experimental creatures created by Ultratech also fight in the tournament so their strength can be tested. Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and releases a two-headed, one-eyed, satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
monster called Eyedol from this dimensional prison.
Jago
A Tibetian monk following the Tiger Spirit, which later turns out to be Gargos in the second Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct 2
Killer Instinct 2 is a 1996 arcade-only fighting game developed by Rare, licensed by Nintendo, and manufactured by Midway.KI2 is the sequel to Killer Instinct , an arcade game which was also ported to the SNES...
, is on the path of enlightenment to defeat the evil within him. He believes it is his destiny to destroy Ultratech. He has many of the same moves as Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
's Ryu
Ryu (Street Fighter)
is a video game player character created by Capcom, the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series. Having premiered in the first Street Fighter in 1987, Ryu appears as the lead character from the game along with his best friend Ken Masters participating in the Street Fighter tournament...
and Ken
Ken Masters
, originally spelled in Japanese as , is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu...
characters, including the fireball (which he calls Endokuken) and spinning uppercut. His No Mercy moves consist of stabbing the enemy with his sword and meditating to have a car fall on the opponent.
Sabrewulf
Count Von Sabrewulf is stricken by lycanthropy
Lycanthropy
Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...
, and is promised a cure by Ultratech if he wins the tournament. This is a semi-cameo appearance of Sabreman, known from Rare's 1984 game Sabre Wulf
Sabre Wulf
Sabre Wulf is a ZX Spectrum video game developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1984. The game is the first in the Sabreman series. It was written originally by Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper, and later ported to many other computer platforms...
. Sabrewulf fights in his inherited castle as his stage level, with biting and claw attacks, and the ability to howl and use his Flaming Bats, though sometimes they will not be flaming. He has two No Mercy moves: one where he slams the foe into the screen, and one in which he stabs the enemy with an elongated claw.
T.J. Combo
A former heavyweight boxing champion for five years. He was stripped of his title and kicked out of the circuit when it was discovered that his arms had cybernetic implants which greatly helped his boxing ability. Ultratech promises him his title will be returned if he wins the tournament. Combo has two No Mercy moves: one where he snaps the opponent's neck, and the other where he punches the opponent into the screen.
Chief Thunder
A Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
Chief, armed with twin tomahawks
Tomahawk (axe)
A tomahawk is a type of axe native to North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. The name came into the English language in the 17th century as a transliteration of the Powhatan word.Tomahawks were general purpose tools used by Native Americans and European Colonials...
, who enters the tournament to find out what happened to his missing brother Eagle in the previous year's tournament. He has two No Mercy moves: in the first he calls down a bolt of lightning to strike the enemy, and in the second he knocks the opponent into the air leaving various objects behind (depending on the opponent). Chief thunder is at the bottom of the character tier due to his faulty move set, notably his special ax spin attack being completely breakable, limiting his unbreakable combo options at everything other than at direct face-to-face range.
B.Orchid
Hired by Ultratech as a secretary, she is actually a spy
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
working for an unknown party and, along with her brother Jago, appears to be the heroine of the video game franchise. She has two No Mercy moves: The first in which she gives her opponent an apparent heart attack by unzipping her top and flashing her breast
Breast
The breast is the upper ventral region of the torso of a primate, in left and right sides, which in a female contains the mammary gland that secretes milk used to feed infants.Both men and women develop breasts from the same embryological tissues...
s at them (though away from the camera) - however, if the opponent is also Orchid, the opponent Orchid will just stomp the ground in spite; and the other in which she turns the opponent into a frog and then (at the player's option) stomps on them.
Cinder
A criminal who was promised early release by Ultratech in exchange for participating in chemical weapons research. As a result of an accident during testing, his body is composed entirely of flame. He is promised a return to his original form if he is able to defeat Glacius in the tournament. In the early development stages of the game his name was Meltdown, but this was soon changed to Cinder. He has two No Mercy moves: the first creates a pool of magma under the opponent, who melts into it; the second shoots the victim with flames to reduce him or her to ashes. Other than Eyedol, Killer Instincts boss character, Cinder is the strongest fighter. Some of Cinder's most useful moves include turning invisible (though his shadow is visible on most levels), and becoming immune to projectile attacks (until he is damaged by a physical attack). Cinder also contains an air-based attack that is easily abused.
Riptor
A genetically engineered velociraptor
Velociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
-human hybrid created as a prototype by Ultratech. The tournament serves to test its abilities as a killing machine. It has three No Mercy moves: one in which it spits acid on the enemy, one in which it stabs the foe with its tail, and one in which it runs at the enemy and eats them. Riptor is a high-tier character that, like Cinder, possesses a special attack that can be abused easily (breathing out a low green flame that is unblockable to any opponent attempting to lift him or herself off of the ground, with the exception of Eyedol); this is due to a hitbox bug that is common throughout the game.
Glacius
An alien who was captured by Ultratech and promised freedom if he wins the tournament. He gets his nickname from his body's icy liquid composition and ability to shapeshift. He is one of the few characters that maintained his original name throughout early development. He uses three different No Mercy moves: [arcade only] one where he becomes a gel-like mass and absorbs the opponent (similar to the Blob), one in which he uses his finger as a syringe to inject the enemy with a substance that turns them to ice, and the last of which he turns into a pool of boiling water that the enemy drowns in. Glacius is a high-tier character who, like most characters in Killer Instinct, has moves that can be abused. Some of these said moves include Glacius reversing his liquidation attack at the last possible moment. This forces the opponent to have to guess on which side he will appear. Another glitch includes Glacius' fireball attack, a delayed burst of fireballs that, along with heavy damage, is extremely difficult to defend against.
Spinal
Spinal, an animated skeleton, is the third to last opponent in the Single Player mode and carries a sword and shield, and has the ability to teleport and physically morph himself into a grayscale
Grayscale
In photography and computing, a grayscale or greyscale digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample, that is, it carries only intensity information...
version of his opponents during combos. He has an odd quirk in that, in order to perform certain moves, he must gather energy (represented by tokens shaped like skulls under his life bar in the SNES version, and by skulls floating around his person in the arcade and gold versions) by either absorbing opponents projectile energy attacks (with his shield in absorbing position), or performing combo breakers. Despite requiring these tokens, his special moves are not particularly stronger than normal special attacks. He can store up to five skull tokens, to the point of overloading if he attempts to absorb energy for the sixth time. On the sixth shield absorb, Spinal will not block the projectile and it will also cause normal damage along with knockdown; Spinal will then be left with one remaining skull. He uses two No Mercy moves: one where he repeatedly stabs the enemy with a spike on his shield, and another where he summons ghostly skeletal hands to drag his opponent underground. In the SNES version, the latter move was changed to him simply summoning a bolt of lightning to strike down his opponent.
Fulgore
Only a year old, Fulgore is a cyborg, part of a cybernetic project developed by Ultratech, the masterminds behind the Killer Instinct fighting tournament, and the penultimate opponent in the Single Player mode. Fulgore is always placed second on the tier before Eyedol. Fulgore was entered into the tournament to test its fighting capabilities. If successful, the Fulgore unit would be placed in mass production. He has two No Mercy moves: one in which it removes its head, revealing a large turret-like gun which shoots the enemy repeatedly; the other uses a laser beam from its eyes to reduce the opponent to ashes.
Eyedol
The final boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
, Eyedol is a two-headed, one-eyed, ancient mystical warlord who was trapped in a dimensional prison in the distant past. Ultratech released him to be the final combatant in the tournament. It is shown in Killer Instinct 2
Killer Instinct 2
Killer Instinct 2 is a 1996 arcade-only fighting game developed by Rare, licensed by Nintendo, and manufactured by Midway.KI2 is the sequel to Killer Instinct , an arcade game which was also ported to the SNES...
that the person Eyedol was trapped in combat with was Gargos, the final boss of that game. Eyedol is the only character that does not have an icon in the character select screen (but in early SNES versions of the game released only to stores, he was selectable); however, in both the arcade and SNES versions, he is a secret character
Secret character
A secret character can be a player character or a non-player character in a video game that must be unlocked by completing a goal within the game...
that can be played as by selecting a specific character (Riptor in earlier arcade versions and Cinder in later arcade versions and in the SNES version) and pressing a combination of buttons before a round begins. He is also the only character in the game with no special finishing moves, such as No Mercy moves, Ultra Combos, or Humiliations that the other characters possess; however, he more than compensates for this lack of ability with a limited ability to heal (CPU only).
Arcade hardware
Killer Instinct was the first arcade game to use an internal hard disk drive in addition to the game's ROMs. This allowed it to store massive amounts of data thereby giving it the ability to have more detailed graphics than other games of this genre. The game used pre-renderedPre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different equipment...
sprites for characters, created with Silicon Graphics, Inc. computers and the backgrounds were pre-rendered as a "movie," which simply adjusted frames based on the current location of the players. All this data was stored on the hard drive. Killer Instinct's R4600
R4600
The R4600, code-named "Orion", is a microprocessor developed by Quantum Effect Design that implemented the MIPS III instruction set architecture . As QED was a design firm that did not fabricate or sell their designs, the R4600 was first licensed to Integrated Device Technology , and later to...
processor was clocked at 100 MHz.
SNES
A SNESSuper Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
port was released. While it has many of the features the arcade version had, many features were altered, downsampled, or removed. The graphic detail was vastly reduced and the character sprites were smaller. The stages with a 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
panning camera were simplified into a 2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
panning view using parallax scrolling for the background and mode 7
Mode 7
Mode 7 is a graphics mode on the Super NES video game console that allows a background layer to be rotated and scaled on a scanline-by-scanline basis to create many different effects. The most famous of these effects this can create is the application of a perspective effect on a background layer...
for the ground or arena, simulating thus, a pseudo-3D effect. Zooming and scaling were removed. Some of the stages were redesigned. The full motion videos that showed the characters after a victory were replaced by still images. Voice samples and sound effects were severely limited, whether shortened or missing altogether.
Most of the characters preserved their special moves and danger moves. However, some of the special graphical effects — notably the shadow move effect — were removed. In addition, the skulls that surround Spinal when he absorbs projectiles are shown under his energy bar instead. To make up for the loss of overall quality, some other modes were added, such as a training mode, a tournament mode (used for multi-player purposes), and other options. The SNES game was packaged in a black casing in Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States, as instead of the standard grey shell.
Game Boy
A Game BoyGame Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
port was also made, but sacrifices were necessary due to the system's limitations. As a result, neither Cinder nor Riptor appear, and the moves were heavily altered due to the more limited controls of the portable. The game supports some coloring when played in a Super Game Boy
Super Game Boy
The is a 16-bit adapter cartridge for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan. The Super Game Boy allows game cartridges designed for use on the Game Boy to be played on a TV display using the SNES/Super Famicom controllers. When it was released in...
. Super Game Boy also allowed for a two player versus match to be played by inserting a second controller. Sabrewulf's moves were also altered severely.
Nintendo 64
There were no direct ports of Killer Instinct for the Nintendo 64, however, a special version of Killer Instinct 2Killer Instinct 2
Killer Instinct 2 is a 1996 arcade-only fighting game developed by Rare, licensed by Nintendo, and manufactured by Midway.KI2 is the sequel to Killer Instinct , an arcade game which was also ported to the SNES...
, titled Killer Instinct Gold, was eventually released for the system.
Killer Cuts: The Soundtrack
An arrangedArrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
soundtrack CD featuring original music from Killer Instinct was released as a pack-in for the Super Nintendo release of the game.
Reception
Upon release, VideoGames reviewer Tyrone Rodriguez gave it the game score of 8 (Great), stating his preference of it over Mortal Kombat 3Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game developed by Midway and released in 1995, first as an arcade game. It is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series...
(the other editors' ratings were 8, 6 and 6).Video Games Issue 81 (October 1995), page 87
In retrospective, Killer Instinct was ranked as the #148 best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
s Top 200 Games list in 2006. In 2008, Screwattack
ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack . is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN...
listed it as the #5 best fighting game of all time, and as the #19 best Super Nintendo game of all time. In 2010, the game was included in the list of "Top 25 Fighting Games of All Time" by UGO
UGO
UGO Entertainment, Inc. is a website providing coverage of online media in entertainment targeting males age 18–34. The company is currently based in New York, New York, United States. On July 24, 2007 it was announced that Hearst Corporation would acquire UGO Entertainment...
.
Despite the good reviews by many, Killer Instinct is often criticized for its serious game play issues, and is regularly used as a textbook example of a brilliant game that has suffered greatly due to poor debugging and testing. The character balance is very poor due to some characters having overpowered glitches, disjointed attack ranges and hitbox errors, inequality in number of low fierce openers available to each character, among other things. The arcade version was notorious for its "ender juggle" glitch, which was incredibly easy to learn and would allow players to repeatedly juggle their opponent in the air until the fight was over. There was also a problem with holding down-back and pressing medium punch; if one intended a low medium and the opponent crouched, the fake overhead would come out instead. The Super Nintendo version corrected this and many other issues, and is generally considered to be the more refined released of the game - character balance was improved, and many game-breaking glitches were removed. Despite the improvements, the Super Nintendo release still suffers from glitches and game play errors that were never corrected when being ported over to console, as well as problems endemic to that release alone.
Killer Instinct XBLA
In an interview with website 1UP.com1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
, Rare studio manager, Mark Betteridge, revealed that Rare would like to bring Killer Instinct to Xbox LIVE Arcade.