Black Orchid (Killer Instinct)

Black Orchid (written as "B. Orchid" or just "Orchid" in the games) is a player character in the Killer Instinct fighting game series created by Rare. Introduced as the only female character in the original Killer Instinct in 1994, Orchid has appeared in every entry in the series to date. A mysterious spy and fighter, she is one of the de facto protagonists of the series, along with her younger brother Jago, and is arguably the most famous and best received Killer Instinct character.

Appearances

In Killer Instinct (1994), Black Orchid is a 23-year-old enigmatic and lethal secret agent for a vigilante-oriented international spy organization and apparently the heroine of the series (along with her brother Jago). Posing as a secretary, she infiltrates Ultratech, the company which organizes the Killer Instinct tournament, to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances related to it. In her ending, she successfully gathers enough information to defeat Ultratech.

In the sequel, Killer Instinct 2 (1996), it is revealed that the now 24-year-old^[2] Black Orchid has destroyed Eyedol (the first game's boss), which sent the Ultratech building two millennia into the past. Now she seeks to destroy Gargos, and find a way home to start a new life.^[3] In her endings, the warrior Jago is revealed as her younger^[4] brother.

Orchid appears in the third entry, Killer Instinct (2013). Having been disavowed by her prior employers, she has fully committed herself to shutting down Ultratech for good, emigrating to Eastern Europe and forming an underground information network in hopes of flushing them out.^[5][6]

Outside of the game series, B. Orchid is featured in the 1996 Killer Instinct comics,^[7] where she is one of the main protagonists. In 2008, Rare created Vision Cards based on her and other Killer Instinct fighters for use in their video game Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.^[8]

Gameplay

B. Orchid's fighting style is mainly based on her weapons (energy swords in the first game and two tonfas in the sequel) and kicks,^[4] including one special move that resembles Chun-Li's famous Spinning Bird Kick. In Killer Instinct, one of her special moves has her morph into a "fire cat".^[9] In Killer Instinct 2, Orchid was given a complete gameplay overhaul,^[10] which included losing her tiger morph special move.^[11] One of Orchid's original finishing moves has her giving a defeated enemy a heart attack by stripping and showing her breasts to them. It was featured only in the first game for the arcades and SNES; the Game Boy version features only the other one, where she turns an enemy into a frog and then stomps on it.^[12]

While Orchid retains many of her classic moves in the 2013 title, she has also been given several new skills, such as the ability to use her Fire Cat as a projectile in Instinct Mode and as part of her Shadow moves.^[13][14] Her classic "retro" costume was included as unlockable content in a patch for the game.^[15] According to Prima Games, Orchid is a very balanced character who "lives and dies by the 50/50 mix-up."^[16] While Orchid "seems lacking compared to the other characters" in that "her special moves are mostly unsafe and she doesn't have that one abusive tactic that most of the other characters seem to possess," she has the fastest movement speed and her Instinct mode is one of the best in the game.^[17]

Reception

Black Orchid ranked as the most popular Killer Instinct character among fans of the series according to an official poll by the 2013 game's developer Double Helix Games on Facebook, receiving 23% of the votes;^[19][20] multiple gaming publications have called her "everyone's favorite" character.^[21][22] GamesTM commented in 2004: "Of all the characters available, B. Orchid proved to be among the most popular. Whether that was down to her ease of use or the fact that her chest bounced around like crazy remains a mystery..."^[23] In 2012, WatchMojo.com ranked her as the third most iconic fighting game character, stating that she "easily steals the show" in the series.^[24] According to Rare Gamer, "found plastered on the sides of KI2 cabinets everywhere, B. Orchid has become nearly synonymous with any mention of Killer Instinct, and her return would send the community into celebration."^[25] She was ranked as the 95th best looking game woman by Brazilian GameHall's Portal PlayGame in 2014.^[26]

Orchid's "flashing" finishing move was a source of much media attention, including being ranked the fifth most creative video game death by Wired in 2009.^[27] In 2011, it was ranked third on a list of the "craziest fatalities" in gaming by Complex,^[28] while UGO.com listed the finisher "where she whips out her sweater puppies and causes her opponent to have a boner-related heart attack" as the 47th nastiest cinematic kill in video games.^[29] In 2012, Houston Press ranked it the fifth stupidest 'fatality' in any game, as "this causes the male characters to have heart attacks and die" even if they are not human.^[30] In ScrewAttack's Death Battle, Orchid won against Soulcalibur's Ivy Valentine by using her other classic finishing move, which turns the defeated opponent into a toad.^[31]

On the other hand, GamePro included her in a 2011 list titled "Six of the Most Broken Characters in Videogame History", saying she is "a forgettable character", and is broken due to her unstoppable combo sequence.^[32] Rob Bricken of Topless Robot criticized her original appearance as a stock character of "a comically over-sexualized woman", stating: "It's hard to pin down the fighting-game world's most blatantly objectified female character, but B. Orchid may well be it. Unless, of course, it was all a joke."^[33]

References