SNES Game Review - Killer Instinct

Developed by Rare and published by Midway and Nintendo, Killer Instinct was originally released in arcades in October of 1994 before being ported to SNES and later Game Boy due to it's popularity in August and November of the following year respectively. The game itself was based heavily on the fighting games of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, encorporating features of both of the games as well as adding a few original ideas to the mix.

Set in a future in which the goverments have been replaced by megacorporations, Ultratech (who appear to specialize in military weaponry and the like) are organizing a tournament the likes of which have never been seen. Humans, mythical creatures, robots, aliens and genetically modified beasts alike are pitted against one another in a series of bloodthirsty one-on-one fights in order to see who has the strongest Killer Instinct. The tournament turns out to just be a ruse, of course, under which Ultratech can test their latest prototypes against living enemies.

The graphics for the arcade version had to be toned down in order for the less powerful SNES to handle them. Still, the graphics are top notch with all the character sprites pre-rendered in 3D and while some of the sparklier moves had to be toned down the finished product still looks surprisingly flashy and the once you've got the gameplay down you can unleash some mouth-wateringly nice looking combos. The stages and backgrounds are all well designed and vary nicely from the inside of a haunted mansion to the roof of a skyscraper with a futuristic-looking city skyline behind you. The sound is adequate but not spectacular. The electronica soundtrack from the arcade version has been nicely preserved but the sound effects have suffered, with there being only 3 or 4 different noises a character makes when they're hit which normally isn't that noticable but when racking up a 20-30 hit combo can end up sounding more than a little repetetive.

Killer Instinct is by no means easy to pick up, however fighting game veterans will no doubt find it a lot easier to get into that someone brand new to the genre. If you are playing Killer Insinct as your first foray into the world of beat-em-ups, you may well end up being put off for good, even on the lowest difficulty setting. However, practice makes perfect and you should eventually become at least good enough to pull of some respectable combos. Playing against human players of similar skill level in the 2 player mode will help with this, and contributes largely to the game's high replay value as the computer opponents tend to be considerably less lenient and will even 'cheat' if you are beating them too badly. Despite this, the game has global acclaim and I see it as one of the major contributors to the success of the beat-em-up genre on the whole.
For services to gaming, I hereby award it a noble 8/10.