Killer Instinct Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The following will be some counters used against some points made by previous reviewers who either are obviously uninformed or unfortunately hopelessly ignorant.

Originality:
The main concern regarding Killer Instinct is apparently that it is unoriginal. One reviewer suggested that it has a six button fighting scheme ripped off from Street Fighter. First of all, KI and SF are apples and oranges. When Super Street Fighter II Turbo came out in 1994, it introduced a system where the character would execute a combination of combos by building a separate energy bar and then releasing it at will. The combo system in KI is not only completely different, but it innovated the industry by bringing fighters altogether to a new level. Never before has a fighting game possess combos as high as 50 hits. The arcade version even allows infinite juggling! No other game has anything distantly similar to KI's exceptional combo system of openers, autoseconds, linkers and endings. No other game has the patented "combo breaker" that allows players to end their opponent's assault right in the middle of their combo. Thus, the argument that KI ripped off SF's fighting style is quite absurd. You're better off comparing SF to Fatal Fury or King of Fighters in the SNK Company. Or better yet, you might even find more similarities between SF and Marvel because KI is in a completely different league.

If anything, KI is more similar to Mortal Kombat in its game design. Even so, MK has utterly nothing on KI when it solely comes down to gameplay. KI not only has the uniqueness of MK's special moves for each character, it also has a much superior combo system and overall a better flow in the game. Although it is somewhat true that the "no mercy" finishers in KI are in the same vein as the "Fatalities" of MK, KI was still able to innovate this further by the creation of the Ultimate Combo, allowing players to perform finishers in the middle of a combo. MK also wished it came up with the genius of the Ultra Combo, hands down the greatest feature ever made for a video game.

Weak Controls:
How exactly does Killer Instinct possess "weak controls"? It combines the style of controls for special moves in traditional Street Fighter (such as the basic D,DF,F+P) with the ones introduced by Mortal Kombat (such as F,F+P). Therefore, how can it possibly do any wrong? For characters such as Cinder, KI's controls allow you to use both styles! A lot of the more complex combos are very difficult to perform, but that's the deal with any game. Practice makes perfect.

Life Bars:
The life bars do not regenerate between rounds in Killer Instinct because the game happens to be cumulative. Do not approach a fight with an expectation of two rounds but rather one. Comebacks may be tough, but it is definitely not impossible. I've seen situations where players are in the "last breath" stage where the announcer says "danger", randomly push the pad and buttons rapidly, escape and win. Why? Because you do over twice your normal damage in the "last breath" stage! There are always opportunities to make comebacks but this is more issues concerning the gamer, than the actual game.

Balance:
Contrary to some false accusations, Killer Instinct is actually perfectly balanced. Just because some characters are easier to learn than others does not make them superior. This is actually part of what makes the game so appealing, the learning process of each character's advantages and disadvantages. Whether it's Cinder's air priority, Orchid's ground edge or Thunder's chipping technique, it all eventually evens out. Spinal, the hardest character to learn is unstoppable if a player can master his specialities. Riptor's amazingly fast transition between moves makes him a dominant force as well as Sabrewulf's ability to manually power up through his howl. Even Eyedol, KI's best character has lag time, just like everyone else. If the computer takes advantage of an initial mistake, combo break him. Again, this is concerning more of the game's strategy than game design.

Honestly, there are no flaws in this game. If so, they are so trival and miniscule, it's not even worth mentionning. Killer Instinct is undeniably a video game classic, period.

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