Killer Instinct

[Blue Wisp]

 

Hisako was confirmed like, a month ago but we've got a trailer just now, and there's a special tease for a certain human torch guy at the end, which is sounding pretty damn sexy. But what is Killer Instinct? Here's a quick recap.

 

Killer Instinct is a fighting game series originally developed by Rare Software, known for being the guys that did the Donkey Kong Country games and Banjo-Kazooie. The game released on 1994, and it basically combined the violence and finishing moves of Mortal Kombat with the combo system of Street Fighter. Was first released on arcades, and then was released as a SNES exclusive. Pretty good game, but the CPU was a cheating son of a bitch. 

Then Killer Instinct 2 appeared, released on 1996. Eeeeeh, it was fun, fixed many things that the first game did wrong, but had some bad things, wasn't a fan of the time travel storyline thing. And the graphics were... Odd. But still fun nonetheless.

Then, hiatus happened, with nothing heard of the series for nearly 17 years. 

17 years. 

Then at 2013's E3, Double Helix Games announced a reboot of Killer Instinct for the Xbox One console featuring all the original cast and newcomers, with 60fps 720p and all that new gen shizz. Announced as having a Season-based cast, starting off slow but getting more content every month. Basically, you can buy the packs for all the characters and you get them as they come out, or you can buy the fighters you want at like, five bucks each. And two years later here we are, still strong and powerful. 

 

The franchise is known for its characters, which while they might be a bit cliché, they still feel unique to play and watch. Like, the first game got the werewolf, the robot Predator, the ninja, the skeleton guy, the native guy, the ice and fire duo. It's stuff that we've all seen before, but they still feel unique. And I don't really care, they're all really awesome. 

Anyway, gonna show the fighters just to have a more complete post. The first game introduced us to 

- Jago

- Orchid

- Thunder

- Fulgore

- Cinder

- Glacius

- Riptor

- TJ Combo

- SPINAL

- and Sabrewulf

and Eyedol is there somewhere.

 

Then in KI2 we got three new guys. Well, four, but three playable.

- Kim Wu

- Tusk

- Maya

and Gargos is the final boss, and despite not appearing per-se yet Gargos is still going to have a big role in the new game apparently. 

 

Then, the new game adds some newcomers.

- Sadira

- Kan-Ra (this guy, hoo man)

- Shadow Jago/Omen

- Aganos

- Hisako

With Shadow Jago as the secret boss of Season 1 and ARIA being the final boss of Season 2. We kind of not know anything about ARIA other than she's the head of Ultratech, and she's paving the way for... Something. Something big. She hired Sadira to steal Glacius' spaceship power core for something so now he's stuck on Earth, apparently caused Hisako to appear in the first place, freed Kan-Ra from his prison, yeah whatever she's planning, it's big. And I can't wait to see what Season 2 brings.

 

Season 3 didn't get confirmed yet but it's looking likely, if there is a Season 3 then we'll absolutely see Kim Wu and Tusk plus more newcomers. Hisako is releasing TOMORROW! and Cinder is releasing next month, apparently ARIA is releasing next month too so double month characters or something like that, and Story Mode for Season 2 is releasing on June.

The game is known for the kickass songs too. The first two games were composed by Robin Beanland, and Graeme Norgate. The third game's songs are made by Mick Gordon. And man, he's a kickass composer. Hear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqHMQgrk76M, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQDab8vT8GU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABt57bKXjPA, and Hisako's theme is looking to be pretty damn great too. Man's a beast and I love him. Yeah, third game has dynamic songs depending on how the fight goes, pretty sweet.

 

So that's it. There's Killer Instinct. 

[Nepenthe]

I have no real nostalgia for the original games. I hadn't heard of the series until it was long presumed dead. But I have a soft spot for Rare, so was nice to see the franchise return on that note.

 

But the real kicker is that the game is far better than it should've been. Every redesign has been great. The stage design is great. The music is a serious game album of the year contender. The slew of new characters has been fun to witness, and the entire package maintains a spirit of early game/Rare excess and silliness. And most importantly, the game mechanics are really solid, easy to understand, and allow for an interesting level of mind games. The Dojo mode alone has gone farther in teaching me how fighting games work than anything else. Granted, I'm still bad, but now when I play or see matches progressing, I understand what's happening. As a result of the constant content, fixes, and general quality, KI is one of the few games where I don't feel like I'm being nickled and dimed.

 

On the subject of Hisako, I mean, she's perfect. I got excited when tweets revealed they were trying to get her to work as if you were really fighting with a movie ghost that's been cranked (the random speed ups and slow downs), and I feel they nailed it with her. She's so unique in that regard and looks to be that she'll be able to actually put in work on the battlefield as well that I can't wait to see her in action tomorrow. Yaaaaay Hisako. You do you; go get your revenge. <3

[Remy]

Killer Instinct is amazing, and definitely my favorite 2D fighting game at the moment. There's something immensely satisfying about playing it and just taking motherfuckers apart completely, I am hoping to compete at a big tournament here in Melbourne in the game and see how it goes.

 

It always amazes me how damn good it feels. So often when new 2D games come out they just feel broken as shit but KI is just awesome and particularly during season 1 felt so well thought out. The game even works on multiple levels, new players once they grasp the basics can have fun flinging out auto combos, but when you get deeper you start messing around with safe jumps, crossups, meaty hits, and the hustle/bluff stuff going on with breakers and counter breakers... There's so much stuff in here! Even the footsie game is rock solid now. Goddamn.

 

Normally I play Jago, but I feel as he's the training dummy I'm handicapping myself- everyone knows how to deal with/break his shit. I do love him, but I'm thinking of transferring to Hisako when she comes out. Love the J-Horror theme.

[Autosaver]

Killer Instinct is amazing, and definitely my favorite 2D fighting game at the moment. There's something immensely satisfying about playing it and just taking motherfuckers apart completely, I am hoping to compete at a big tournament here in Melbourne in the game and see how it goes.

Remz, I find it weird you've posted in here when you made your own thread a while back. I remember you being a big fan so I somehow remembered you made that thread.

 

[Rawpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLmf3n00IM HOLY JEEZ THIS THEME

[Teoskaven]

Meh; i love to death Mick Gordon's work on this game's soundtrack, but this theme seems pretty forgetfull compared to other like Aganos, Kan-Ra or Spinal. Hell, it sounds like it's coming from a Dead or Alive game.

 

 

-too be honest though, at least is not panned by the fans like Riptor's theme-

[gato]

So.. I was watching Max's Mortal Kombat X videos when I noticed this being posted.

 

 

 

 

Should we expect more of this character on the coming days?

[Nepenthe]

I love how we got footage of Cinder's Ultra. It was only supposed to be shown if 4000 people tuned into the stream. At around 3500, one of the devs performed the Ultra by accident and negated half the point of tuning it. It was a hilarious moment.

Speaking of seeing more Cinder, here is said stream. He is potentially, disgustingly, OP. And on top of that has the nerve to be a cheeseball. People are calling him a Ben 10 character. xD

[gato]

Cinder Trailer + ARIA teaser

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3LdojemPys

 

Man, I can't really hear much difference between his old theme and the new one.

 

Also, Aria looks like she came from Megaman Zero :V

[Remy]

I loooooove cheesy 90s spiderman Cinder. So refreshing in a game (or genre) filled with characters whose personalities consist of "let us fight!"

 

Having his theme be throwbacky too fits so well. 

[Blue Wisp]

The new theme is faster. Plus there's a few new parts that are more heavy metal according to this tease. Still absolutely loving that song. I need a full version of it.

 

Cinder sounds like a jerk and I love it. Still amazed how we went from the edgy angry vengeance ghost girl to the smartass spiderman human torch. More variety is always welcome.

[Remy]

It's definitely like 25% faster. The metal chug is more 2010s that 80s iron maiden now too. It's an update/pretty different for sure, but I feel it really captured the original. 

[gato]

Liiiiive! Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Season 3 confirmed!

Rash from Battletoads confirmed!

Best fighting game confirmed?

[MightyRay]

Season 3? Does that mean more awesome Mick Gordon music? Yes!

[gato]

Season 3? Does that mean more awesome Mick Gordon music? Yes!

Hopefully, speaking of which, Season 2's OST is already up for grabs on iTunes and other media outlets that I forgot about.

[MightyRay]

Score! Thank you for telling me Gato I've been waiting for ages to nab that sound track!

[Remy]

Gotta listen to inferno on repeat until my ears stop working. So dang good.

 

I have real mixed feelings about Rash/Battletoads being in KI. The game was always a little goofy but this kinda feels too goofy, if that makes sense? I guess people really love battletoads

[gato]

It's a guest character, makes as much sense as the Predator and Freddy Kruger in Mortal Kombat.

IMO of all the guests they could have picked from they went for an old-school Rare nod so I'm happy with it, having said that, everyone knows Zitz would have been the better choice.

[Captain Candle]

For anyone who cares, the Rash trailer dropped today.

[Nepenthe]

Sooooooooo this came out of nowhere. Mick Gordon is not going to be the composer for the game anymore, as per his Facebook page.

I don't even fucking want it anymore.

[MightyRay]

Sooooooooo this came out of nowhere. Mick Gordon is not going to be the composer for the game anymore, as per his Facebook page.

I don't even fucking want it anymore.

WHAT?!

But he was so good?! Hinnamatoom was one of the best pieces of video game music ever to be conceived... that alone should have kept him around. Also Inferno was just amazing. Why you do this Microsoft?!  

[gato]

Sooooooooo this came out of nowhere. Mick Gordon is not going to be the composer for the game anymore, as per his Facebook page.

I don't even fucking want it anymore.

 

I don't want to ultra combo on this planet anymore...

At the very least it seems like he left in good terms (and it was his choice, or am I reading this the wrong way? I hope not).

[Remy]

They're really starting off Season 3 in a pretty shitty way. Mick Gordon departs and the first "tease" we get is battletoads. :|

[Nepenthe]

I think Rash is okay. I mean, a guest character here or two can't hurt since there's really only two original KI characters left anyway. It's a fun little thing, particularly if he's not actually a canon part of the story.

But Mick Gordon's departure is definitely inexcusable. Like, who decided not to give him more money?

[gato]

That can probably be blamed on Microsoft, it's no secret that despite all the love that seems to have been put into this title the budget the guys at Iron Galaxy have to work with is rather limited. Is basically the answer they always give when people ask about certain features missing or not feeling up to the standard the core of the game itself makes you think it'd have.

Which is very weird considering this is one of their exclusive titles and it's basically the only thing they'll have in the near future to compete against the monster known as Street Fighter V.