Killer Instinct

aka: Brute Force, KI
Moby ID: 4287
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In the distant future, a monopolistic and technological corporation called Ultratech organizes a fighting tournament known as "Killer Instinct". Many fighters answer the challenge to participate, including several of Ultratech's experimental warriors. To increase the tournament's challenge, Ultratech utilizes a technology that can create bridges between alternate dimensions, releasing a creature known as Eyedol. Eyedol is a two-headed ancient warrior that was imprisoned along with his bitter rival, Gargos. Some warriors enter the tournament to seek glory or escape. Other fighters are attempting to bring an end to Ultratech's corruption.

Killer Instinct is a 2D versus fighting game that features 3D rendered sprite based graphics. Players choose from ten characters: Orchid, Cinder, Jago, Glacius, Fulgore, Riptor, Sabrewulf, Spinal, T.J. Combo, and Thunder. The game is known for its heavy combo-based fighting system, allowing players to pull off moves that land a high number of hits on their opponent, the highest being the "Ultra Combo". The game also features combo breakers, finishing moves and stage fatalities, double energy bars, and a dance-music inspired techno soundtrack.

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Credits (Arcade version)

64 People (53 developers, 11 thanks) · View all

Head Programmer
Gameplay Programmer
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3D Programming
Additional Programming
Character Design
Character Models
Background Design
Background Models
Additional Graphics
Music
Sound
Hardware Design
Character Voices
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 124 ratings with 6 reviews)

A must have, never mind the age

The Good
#1 Graphics The Graphics are excellent (for the snes). Characters look 3D, and can be distuingished from other fighting games with their cartoony animation. The graphics in this game from the characters to the stages will keep you off your seat.

2 Sound

Although the sound effects are kind of dumb sometimes, the music is nothing to laugh at. Backround music is incredibly cool, as each character has their own, unlike Mortal Kombat. Plus, since the SNES can't really pump out excellent quality , jump off the chair music, a soundtrack CD is included with some of the best tunes Ive ever heard!

3 Everything Else!

All the characters are perfectly balanced out, and they all look great. There are no same characters over and over with few changes like in the MK series (Rain, SubZero, Scorpion, Ermac, Noob Saibot). While there may not be as much as MK3 & UMK3, the characters it does have are excellent, from their appearance to their type.

The Bad
There was absoulutely NOTHING wrong with this game, other than the fact that if you played single player on very easy, you can't fight the boss or see a character ending.

The Bottom Line
This game truly amazes me, and I still play it all the time.

My Rating ( 5 / 5 ) = solid gold

SNES · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

Combo Instinct is more like it!

The Good
Killer Instinct (KI) is the king of SNES one-on-one fighters, as well as one of the prettiest games available for the console – despite the inherent graphical limitations that keep this conversion from completely matching the arcade original. The soundtrack is an appropriately driving techno/industrial mix.

There is an outstanding mix of characters fitting a variety of different styles and archetypes (martial artist, boxer, amazon, ice-man, fire-man, wolf-man, cyborg, etc.). In short, the cast is both well-balanced and full of personality – for a fighting game, at any rate. The number of characters, along with the seemingly endless number of combinations (some of them hidden), gives this title considerable replay value. Tournament play is available for one or two players, and there is also a practice mode that is very useful in learning how to execute the complicated combo moves and combo breakers.



The Bad
The combo moves were influential on the rest of the tournament fighting genre, but they are also KI’s biggest flaw. Fighting without using combos is a sure way to lose, and they are often quite difficult to master. The gamepad makes things both better and worse; the buttons are nice and close together for fast pressing, but the directional pad isn’t as good for smooth rotating motions as an arcade joystick is.

KI can be rather frustrating, especially since its AI seems to cheat. Believe me, it’s a lot better at pulling off those “impossible” 80-hit combos than any human player would be. Also, you can be fairly successful (but not dominant) just by mashing buttons in random combinations. This makes the game easy to get into, but then you’ll hit a wall when you attempt to go from smashing buttons to smashing your opponents with any kind of consistency. Frankly, I don’t know how many gamers out there will have both the skill and the patience to really master KI. I’m sure they exist, but I’m certainly not one of them.


The Bottom Line
The game that stole some of the 16-bit thunder from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct will be a hit with fighting game fans who like colorful characters and combo systems. If you don’t like combo moves, though, you should avoid KI at all costs.

SNES · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2005

Good and Bad

The Good
For a handheld game, KI isn't all that bad at all. I'm actually surprised at how much rare were able to include in this. Sure, it's far from the originals looks, but it really is impressive to watch when compared to other Game Boy fighters.

Getting into the game isn't all that hard. Choose your player and mash the buttons. Thankfully there are plenty of moves each character can perform, and they are easy enough to pull off (most of them anyway).

What stands KI out from the crowd is the graphics. On a system which has very little power, Rare have found some extra power to not only present the characters in a form similar to the Arcade versions, but also keep them moving around the screen fairly smoothly. All that and a fairly decent MIDI soundtrack that never got annoying to me like past Game Boy music scores.

The Bad
Here's where the achivements come to a halt. Thankfully, the Game Boy Pocket, Color and Advance made it easier to see the characters on screen, as the original Game Boy had a hard time keeping up. Graphics were at times blurry, unless you had an uptodate system.

So much work has been put into the graphics that Rare forgot to add some decent play modes to back up the single player game. You can complete the game fairly quickly once you get used to a characters style, and other then pushing up the difficulty level, nothing else will keep you occupied here.

The Bottom Line
Rare had something going with this. It's the best presentation on an original Game Boy screen, yet still the complete package is below par. Hopefully a full conversion of KI will find its way to the Game Boy Advance, as it made plenty of fans while out and about during the 90's. It deserves to be brought back into the world, I just hope that Nintendo realise that.

Game Boy · by Kartanym (12418) · 2006

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
New Platform Zaibatsu (20074) Dec 10, 2009
Odds Of Killer Instinct Appearing On The Wii VC? Guy Chapman (1748) May 26, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Killer Instinct appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

Killer Instinct was originally developed for arcades as a prototype to the Ultra 64, later renamed the Nintendo 64. When the 64 project was delayed, Nintendo went ahead and released the SNES port instead.

Gameboy version

Missing from the Gameboy version are, of course, every animated cutscene, plus two characters: Cinder and Riptor. Also, the Game Boy version included in the box a metallic pendant with the Killer Instinct logo engraved on it.

SNES version

For the transition to the SNES, the only major item missing is the 3D animated cut-scenes. They are replaced here by stills of the animations for the VS. and winner screens. The SNES version also comes packed with a soundtrack CD, titled Killer Cuts, which features remixed music based on the background and main themes found in the game. Another unique feature of the SNES version of Killer Instinct is that the game itself is a black colored cartridge. Most SNES games were a plain, gray color.

Information also contributed by Guy Chapman, [Kartanym](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,2666/), and [Kohler 86](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,34837/)

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Zovni.

SNES added by Kartanym. Arcade added by The cranky hermit.

Additional contributors: Guy Chapman, Ben K, Zaibatsu, FatherJack.

Game added June 13, 2001. Last modified March 5, 2024.