Killer Instinct is a very interesting game historically in my opinion. At the time I was very big into both Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Both were important to me though at the time I kind of leaned more towards the latter because I was a kid and the extra violence hit hard with me. Killer Instinct was the outlier. It had elements of both, but for some reason I was never particularly interested. The game started life in the arcades and was first slated for the Nintendo 64 (known as the Ultra 64 at the time) but due to delays the developer Rare decided to release a toned down version for the Super Nintendo. Today we’re going to take a look at this port.
So it’s a fighting game, and in this era they’re all pretty predictable in regards to story. Killer Instinct takes place in the future where a megacorporation called Ultratech starts a titular fighting tournament to test the strength of their own combatants. Either way, Rare was clearly just trying to be edgy, and the roster hits that point home. You have a ninja named Jago, lava/ice monsters named Cinder and Glacius (they’re largely palette swaps), a werewolf, skeleton, etc. What I’m trying to say is that the roster was more focused on being edgy rather than interesting. I will admit that I thought Chief Thunder was a cool addition because of his background, but other fighters were introducing Native American fighters at the time as well. The roster still manages to make itself distinct.
Killer Instinct is a strictly two dimensional fighter. Like Mortal Kombat before, during, and after this version of the game uses pre-rendered sprites. The game makes use of all the face buttons on the Super Nintendo controller for various punches and kicks. Each character differs in their range, attack power, and special moves. The latter of these are performed with various button inputs but it’s mostly sweeps on the directional pad followed by face button inputs. This is all by the books as far as fighting games from this era go. What sets Killer Instinct apart from the pack is its focus on combos. Yes, other fighting games before and after did this. Few others have focused on it like this.
When I say it was a focus I mean it. The combo system was what set Killer Instinct apart from the other fighting games of this era. Most fighting games from this era let you jump in and attack foes with projectiles until you win. That’s not the case here. You could practice (and you would need to) to master and figure out the combo engine. To this day most fighting games haven’t reached quite this level of intricacy in regards to the combination system. This gave the characters a level of differentiation that I haven’t seen except from the likes of Virtua Fighter. As a hardcore Street Fighter II player I must say that Killer Instinct requires even more practice than it if you’re going to perform ultra combos.
So I’ll admit not everyone wants to put in the time or effort to acquire the muscle memory required for these combinations. That’s totally fine. I didn’t care about mastering every character, but I chose Orchid and that took me, as a veteran fighting game fan, to be successful here. If you’re a hardcore fan of the genre then you’ll absolutely love Killer Instinct. If you’re not then you should probably pass on Killer Instinct. I will say that I find the many iterations of Street Fighter II more rewarding in this regard. Technical isn’t always better. Killer Instinct appeals to a very specific type of player. I’d say it’s for Mortal Kombat fans that want something a little more. Those that feel Mortal Kombat is too shallow, but still enjoy how it plays.
So with that said the single player is structured very similarly to Mortal Kombat. When you start single player you view a totem of characters you have to beat in order to see the end credits. The artificial intelligence is cheap ala Mortal Kombat. You’ll really only want to play this one against friends who are also practicing. With that said Killer Instinct is however a product of its time. For better or worse. The game has fatality like finishing moves that are clearly inspired by the aforementioned franchise. They’re about what you would expect; nothing particularly original but they go a long way to humiliating your opponent when you’ve mercilessly destroyed them.
So while Killer Instinct looks and plays derivative at first it doesn’t carve out its own identity until you’ve dug in a bit. With that said the fighting engine is just okay in my opinion. While I loved performing intricate combos and found it rewarding when you could nail them down Killer Instinct lacks teeth in my opinion. It’s too gritty for its own good, and feels too derivative in my opinion. A Mortal Kombat clone with characters more limber like in Street Fighter II sounds like it would be perfect, but in practice it isn’t. The game is cool no doubt, but it just doesn’t play as smoothly as Street Fighter counterparts of the time.
The graphics are great. Killer Instinct looks better than even Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The characters are more clear than in pretty much all other pre-rendered fighting games of this era. They also animate slightly better as well. The backgrounds are also very impressive when you consider the limitations of the Super Nintendo. They don’t compare to those of the arcade version, but when compared to other 16-bit fighters they’re pretty good. Overall I enjoy the visuals despite the obvious downgrades from the arcade version. The soundtrack really shines though. It sets a great dark tone, and takes full advantage of the SNES soundchip. Even the voice samples declaring the characters and combo attacks are really cool, and surprisingly high quality for a cartridge based platform.
Killer Instinct is somewhere in between Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat for me. Depending on the player that’s either a good or bad thing. In my opinion I like the focus on more intricate gameplay as well as the gore and dark style. If you’re a fan of 16-bit fighters (or just similar games from this era) then by all means Killer Instinct has your number.
