Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner as we take a break from those crappy DIC cartoons to revisit a classic tournament game. During the fighting genre’s popularity between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter in the 90s was a single title that managed to break though. Killer Instinct was this very game to do that as its own thing in a sea of generic fighting titles in the Arcades. KI got developed by Rare who by 1994 was solely known for making console releases like Donkey Kong Country or Battle Toads. At first glance KI might look like a Mortal Kombat ripoff when in actuality it has an original theme. Of course, there were knockoffs to MK in the mid-90s as seen from the horrid Kasumi Ninja on the Atari Jaguar. However, KI is not even close to copying since the theme was completely different from both MK and Street Fighter. It was also the third game to implement a combo system that Capcom started with Super Street Fighter II in 1993. The theme takes place on an alternate Earth where its sole government is run by the corporation called Ultra Tech. The massive corporation hosts a tournament and will fulfill the wish of any warrior that wins it. However, little does the world know the president of Ultra Tech is trying to summon a powerful demon called Eyedol. Gameplay If anyone is expecting a “me too” gameplay from Killer Instinct, then you are sorely mistaken. Starting with the characters’ move sets and Rare really thought this out. The difference between Super Street Fighter II and KI is the specials which required more effort to do each one. The combo system has a bit of a learning curve because it’s all about timing and getting the combinations right. Unlike SSFII, each character has several specials and combos to their strengths. Depending on your timing you can execute triple to awesome and monster combos after doing a session of attacks. At first that might feel difficult to memorize all these combinations but once you get use to executing them it all becomes a breeze. Now, the hardest one to perform is the ultras which let the player do 20 to nearly 50 hits. It’s an alternative to the No Mercies, and I can’t think of a better way to show you are the supreme player then performing these finishers. I always had a hard time pulling off an Ultra or Ultimate because it requires several attacks to activate. Of course, we can’t forget how balanced this system was with using a combo breaker. As the name implies a player can prevent the other from performing them during the execution. I never had a problem executing these strings of attacks on the AI because it rarely blocked me from doing them. It's obvious this was aimed at the multiplayer, so no one really dominates a match all the time. When you look at the first MK titles, there are times I noticed back then where a player would turtle or spam the same attacks and projectiles. If you don’t know turtling is when a gamer stays crouched down while doing weak kicks or punches before ending with a powerful attack. It’s interesting how Rare took a cheater's spamming into consideration because now they couldn’t keep their distance with reusing the same tactics. Rare's work in the 90s sure made them a powerhouse in visuals as not many developers incorporated the graphics of this caliber in 1994. It took companies like Midway, Sega and Konami three years for them to catch up to Rare's KI series. By 1997 titles like Virtua Fighter 3, Tekken 3 and MK4 would make KI seem dated when these studios developed true 3D graphics. These environments still gave the cyber punk and ancient stages the look they needed to make them feel lively. KI does have finishers as its own fatality system but not in the same manner as seen in MK. Since the game saw its funding come from Nintendo, the studio knew they couldn't be as bloody as Midway's IP. These are called No Mercies, however; I still found them enjoyable even if they weren't as brutal. Each warrior has two fatal finishes, one Ultra and a single humiliation to perform. Introducing the Ultra combo to end a fight added to the genre then most think. I mean, actually pulling it off would always give me such a satisfying feeling of accomplishment. Adding those shadow effects of the characters doing their specials and ultra combos made them also look more devastating. As you might have known, the 90s for games like this would always go for that shock value during the Fourth Generation. In Orchid's No Mercy has her literally unzip her top part of the body suit that exposes her breasts. I always enjoyed the reaction of the male characters who upon seeing them would die from sexual excitement. However, if you perform this on a mirror Orchid, she hilariously rage quits because her boob size wasn’t as great as hers. You think that’s funny then the humiliations were another hilarious way to rub it in the other player’s face. We got friendship gags and baby transformations in MKII but here the losing opponent has to forcefully dance. Just seeing Glacius, Cinder, Jago and even Eyedol forcefully dance always had me snickering based on how stupid it looked. The second pic has me playing as Eyedol who as mentioned is an unlockable character. Rare really did this code justice as they followed the hidden playable fighter concept from Capcom. If there is one issue with these No Mercies, then the stage fatalities are one of them as they felt almost the same. The only difference is they fatally hit the ground or into something with hardly any damage. In MKII, the Dead pools, Pit II and the Kombat Tomb always had their own fatality that wasn’t the same. The only one that had a different outcome was an opponent falling into a lava pit on the Desert Rooftop. Then there was another where the opponent crashed through the mote of the castle stage. That is no different than the player falling into the lava pit in the desert level. Rare could’ve put more effort here as even Eternal Champions managed to get the stage fatalities right with variation. Another problem came from how similar the effects of killing your opponent. I still find no reason for the opponent to simply drop to the floor after Fulgore, Thunder and Jago do their finishers. What does Rare think this is the MK titles on Game Boy? Take the MK3’s GB port and here Midway thought giving the limited roster nearly the same fatality of burning the enemy into ash was such a great idea. Rating: 9.0/10 Graphics/Presentation Unlike Rare's work with DKC on Super NES, the more powerful arcade system from the MIPS R4600 board allowed for them to do more things. The stage environments and 3D character models were pre-rendered as they ran on a recording. These pre-recordings of the 3D stages allowed for lively environments never seen before in the Arcades. It's true that MK and SF had great effects within the backgrounds; however, KI took this further. The landscapes provided beautiful scenery with each having a massive expanse. The environments see the usual variety between domesticated and wild areas. In the Chicago stages had a Blade Runner style scenery as seen from the sky scrapper platform. A massive screen on one of skyscrapers shows a short demo of this game while a full moon remains surrounded in the darkness of the clouds. The ancient areas as seen from the Tiger Shrine and the Mountain Temple provided a mystical appearance. Of course, the dark style places of the castle stages from Spinel and Sabrewulf, Skull Chamber and Eyedol’s Chamber would match the theme they represented. The cloud effects and cinematography were really something for their time as MKII didn’t have such features included in its stages often. The cloud and fog effects added to the darker areas as seen from Chicago. Then we have the right lightning in the industrial and ancient places which added to dark environments. Yes, kiddies this is what CGI in the first pic looked like in 1994 for gaming and at the time was considered top of the line. The scene shows Jago mediating in the Tiger Shrine in a short 10 second clip. Today its quality sure has aged badly between the low ploy textures and stiff animation. The 3D models which were condensed into 2D sprites had the broadest of detail during the mid-90s. Just like MK, the characters truly show the 90s persona we see so often in the media from that time. From hip hop to rock there was a variety of personas that played to the strengths of the roster. The only negative thing really to critique are the visuals and 90s CGI just ages terribly on all fronts. It doesn’t matter whether the visuals were digitized or not CGI graphics never ages well for gaming. The problem with Rare’s realistic design is that everything is as if the world was made from plastic. Just take a look at Orchid’s hair style and it appears scraggly like she woke up from an eight-hour sleep. Today her retro KI1 outfit has an even worse appearance in the 2013 reboot as if she didn’t shower in days. It's even worse for Glacius and Cinder as today they both look like cheap plastic toys you get at the dollar store. Another thing about the 3D models’ animations is their stiff movements. After playing DKC and watching the sprites go through their pre-recorded animations, they would always move fluently. Rare had no excuse to not add extra frames of movements when they did that with DKC easily. Maybe it was their first time developing realistic graphics since the only experience they had was from cartoonish designs. My biggest gripe with these old fighting titles is also the lacking story elements during the tournament. Aside the intro and endings there wasn’t much substance but their simple reasons why all of them entered. For the second image, I wasn't lying when mentioning the roster having dollar store toy designs, and this wasn't limited to Cinder and Glacius. Every character has cheap plastic and chrome like textures to their overall look as if they were sprayed with a substance to make them shine. At least the special effects on their body aged decently with the flames fuming and the icy mist swirling around. The soundtrack which got released on its own CD called Killer Cuts probably had the best music from this type of game that decade. I mean each track represented the personality of the characters and some even had lyrics. Rare really went the extra mile here as the OST relates to the characters. My favorite is obviously Orchid's theme H.I. Feeling as I love the way their inserted her sexualize personality into the song. The other tracks that were also enjoyable is Trail Blaze, Do It, Freeze and the Extreme. Killer Cuts features a variety of music from hip hop, rap, metal and rock all fitted in a nice collection. It’s like there was something for everyone to enjoy and not solely limited to game music. Of course, there is the main theme and it does an amazing job compared to the first MK movie. The difference is KI's main song got made solely for the game and not for a license. As it stands, MK doesn’t have an official inaugural theme except for one offs that appeared in separate games. That’s not to say MK’s movie theme is bad as on some occasions I listen to it because the song still sounds that damn good. KI’s inaugural song is still being use today in the 2013 reboot as a revised rock and metal version from Mick Gordon. Rating: 8.5/10 Features/Content When it comes to content KI truly delivers the golden standard for a fighting game. Even though there are no secret fighters to find, however, Rare got one thing completely right. You can unlock and play as Eyedol, a Shao Khan type character known for their cheap attacks. Here’s where Rare really took this further as Eyedol isn’t a boss character riddled with cheap powerful attacks. He actually has a combo move set that despite being hard to perform can still be done. I also love the way Rare took a page out of Capcom’s book with Akuma from Super Street Fighter II Turbo. I mean unlocking him is almost similar where you need to pick Cinder to perform the cheat. It’s better when compared to the cheap and crappy moves Shao Kahn and Motaro had in MK3. Of course, that brings me to the two Player co-op as you can’t have a game like this without such a feature. The gameplay really does give replay value as there are technically 11 characters to master thanks to their vast list of specials and combos. The only issues here are the lacking secret fights with hidden fighters and of course the difficulty towers. Perhaps we have gotten spoiled over the years by these features in modern gaming that this seems disappointing. Ed Boon’s team obviously fixed this in the MK3 series, but it’s a glaring problem for these early 90s fighting titles. At least Rare followed Midway’s example with the ladder being randomize in its order every time. Rating: 8.5/10 I had to bring this up since so many of the new generation of gamers don't know about the N64 originally name. Back in 1994, as Sony announced they would enter the game industry with their PlayStation One Nintendo then announced the successor to Super NES. They named it the Nintendo Ultra 64 playing off as a successor due to the word super being used previously. Nintendo supposedly dropped the Ultra 64 title in 1996 based on a rumored trademark issue with Konami. Final Rating As Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter remain powerhouse titles in the genre, KI really can stand on its own. The best thing about KI is it doesn't come off as a "me too" type of game that others tried to do. The gameplay uses traditional mechanics, however; KI took this to the next level. Rare did a good job freshen out the combo system compared to SSFII and it results in different attack patterns. KI’s presentation also did a fantastic job differing itself from a world warrior or mystic fighters’ theme we see so often. The characters truly fit the 90s “EXTREME” persona when TJ Combo, Orchid, Cinder and Riptar are on the roster. The soundtrack really does capture that 90s style themes even though they feel dated more than music from the 80s. There are 11 fighters to choose from and was the standard for this genre to have. Mastering the roster gives the players plenty of replay value to contend with. The only thing missing was finding secret characters to face and different tournament ladders that MK3 featured later on. KI was a game that benefit the fighting genre by adding to Capcom’s combo system. It obvious that tournament games would only get better through the years. Gameplay: 9.2/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.5/10 Features/Content: 8.5/10 Final Rating: 8.8/10
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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