Killer Instinct

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For the FOX television series, see Killer Instinct (TV series).

For the reference to the human behaviour, see Killer Instinct (human behaviour).

For the Acclaim Comics comic book, see Killer Instinct (comics).

Killer Instinct

Developer(s)	Rareware
Publisher(s)	Nintendo, Midway
Release date(s)	1994
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, Super NES, Game Boy
Input	Joystick; 6 buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Ultra 64
Arcade display	Horizontal, Raster, standard resolution (Used: 320 x 240)

Killer Instinct is a fighting game by Rare and Nintendo. Initially released in arcades in 1994, and claiming to use an "Ultra 64" hardware engine. The game received a high profile launch on the Super Nintendo, as well as on the Game Boy. It led to a sequel, Killer Instinct 2.

Developed using SGI computers and 3D modeling software from Alias, Killer Instinct was considered a graphical leader when it was released. It featured animated backgrounds that were pre-rendered movies which changed angles depending on the character location on many of the stages. This technique causes the backgrounds to have an unprecedented three dimensional look — a look far better than was possible at the time in real time 3D rendering. (Bram Stoker's Dracula for the Sega CD later used this technique.) The characters were pre-rendered sprites, although many players at the time thought the characters were rendered in real time 3D.^{[citation needed]} Killer Instinct was also the first arcade game with an internal hard disk.

[edit] Story

Ultratech is a very powerful company which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct. Along with regular participants, experimental creatures created by Ultratech also fight in the tournament. Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and to also release from his dimensional prison a two-headed monster called Eyedol, an ancient warrior that was locked away along with his rival.

[edit] Characters

The game features ten characters, all of which are owned by Rare after the acquisition:

[edit] B. Orchid

Hired by Ultratech as a secretary, she is actually a spy working for an unknown party and, along with Jago, appears to be the heroine of the game franchise. Her full name is Black Orchid.

[edit] 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 afterwards changed to Cinder.

[edit] Fulgore

Fulgore is a cyborg, part of a cybernetic project developed by Ultratech, the masterminds behind the Killer Instinct fighting tournament. Fulgore was entered into the tournament to test its fighting capabilities. If successful, the Fulgore unit would be placed in mass production. During the first Killer Instinct tournament, Fulgore met its end at the hands of Jago. A newer version of Fulgore was produced for the second fighting tournament.

[edit] 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 shape-shift.

[edit] Jago

A Tibetan monk following the Tiger Spirit, he 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 and spinning uppercut. Jago is the main character of the series.

[edit] Riptor

A genetically engineered velociraptor-human hybrid created as a prototype by Ultratech. The tournament serves to test its abilities as a killing machine.

[edit] Sabrewulf

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 Sabre Man, known from Rare's 1984 game Sabre Wulf. Sabrewulf fights in his inherited castle as his home level, with biting and claw attacks, and the ability to howl and use his Flaming Bat.

[edit] Spinal

An Ultratech minion. He is a product of cell regeneration; a living skeleton of an ancient warrior. He seems to fight for sheer enjoyment. He 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 skull under his life bar in the SNES version, and by skulls floating around his person in the arcade) by either absorbing opponents projectile energy attacks, or performing combo breakers. Despite requiring these tokens, his special moves are not particularly stronger than normal special attacks. He can "store" up to 5 skull tokens.

[edit] T.J. Combo

A former heavyweight boxing champion for 5 years. He was stripped of his title and kicked out of the circuit due to sheer brutality towards his opponents, and because he was using cybernetically enhanced arms. Ultratech promises him to return his title if he wins the tournament.

[edit] Chief Thunder

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.

[edit] Eyedol

A two-headed, 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.

[edit] Art Style

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Unlike many other fighting games, especially its contemporaries, Killer Instinct takes place in a modern/futuristic setting. Most stages are quite dark and the game's palette is composed generally of dark, rich colours, which highlight this. The attacks of the game are covered in a comic book style starburst. White starbursts designate hits that have connected, while red ones designate blocked hits. This style is similar to the flashes that appear in later fighting games such as Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Bushido Blade. The amount of blood in the game is actually quite low, especially considering the title of the game. While there is slightly more blood in Killer Instinct than Street Fighter IIwich has no blood at all, generally speaking it is in a realistic amount and never approaches the levels of the Mortal Kombat games.

The music of the game contains a variety of genres and differs heavily between each stage. Of special notice is that when a player's life is in critical status, the music tracks changed to a small loop of the current track, a la Street Fighter II. However due to the flow of the game this only occurs once per match and only at the very end, as opposed to two to three times in Street Fighter II, allowing the original track to play much longer.

[edit] Gameplay

Killer Instinct plays like many other typical fighting games, in which the player controls a character in order to beat an opponent in a one-on-one encounter. The game borrows Street Fighter IIs attack set (a weak, medium and strong attack for punches and kicks, respectively), but also is inspired by Mortal Kombats graphic violence and finishing sequences. There are 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 finish 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 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: Largely inspired by Mortal Kombat's Fatalities, each character has a least two moves known as No Mercy (Danger Move in later revisions) in order to finish the opponent in a violent manner. Some of these moves (only one per character) can also 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 movements. Another finisher is the Humiliation, 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.
Combo Breaker: The player who is being caught in a combo may break out of it by inputting a 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, i.e. Jago, instead of a regular green fireball, can shoot a red fireball.

[edit] Ports

[edit] Nintendo 64

Initially, Killer Instinct was one of many titles planned for the Nintendo 64 (called back then as Nintendo Ultra 64), as a relative perfect arcade port, along with Cruis'n USA. Killer Instinct did appear on the platform later on, but as a special version of its sequel.

[edit] Super NES

During that period, a Super NES port was planned and subsequently released. While it has many of the features the arcade version had, some sacrifices had to be done in order to fit the game in the cartridge. The graphic detail was vastly reduced, the characters were smaller. Some of the stages were redesigned or dropped from this version. The famous full motion videos that showed the characters after a victory were replaced by still images.

Most of the characters preserved their special moves and danger moves. However, some of them lost some moves. In the case of Spinal's skulls that surrounds him when he absorbs projectiles, the skulls are shown under his energy bar instead.

The game features many of the arcade version's secrets, though many of them have to be inputted with other sequences. For example, in order to play as Eyedol, in older arcade releases the player had to select Riptor and enter a code, but in later releases and also in the SNES release Cinder must be selected instead and different code must be inputted.

In spite of these changes, some other modes where added, such a training mode, a tournament mode (used for multiplayer purposes) and other options.

[edit] Game Boy

A Game Boy port was also done, but more sacrifices were done due to the hardware's limitations. As a result, neither Cinder or Riptor appear, and the moves were heavily altered due to the two button limit of the portable. The game also supports some coloring when played in a Super Game Boy.

[edit] Version Differences

In the first arcade version of the game the Danger moves were called No Mercy. This was changed for all later releases in the arcades and the SNES port.
In the first arcade release, Cinder was named Meltdown.
In older arcade releases there was a glitch that caused Fulgore and Glacius' teleport moves, when used against the edge of the rooftop levels, to shrink the players graphics to roughly half their normal size.
In earlier arcade releases after turning the opponent into a frog with Orchid, the player could break out of the finishing move and perform other moves and combos against the opponent, including the flash finishing move.
The SNES version replaced the highly popular "Ultra combo!" announcer voice with a very short sample of the word "Ultra" that repeats several times
The SNES version is missing many of the more advanced combo techniques, including break ups, missed Ultras and air Ultras.

[edit] Trivia