Killer Instinct

Honest and Unpopular Reviews No. 30 Killer Instinct (SNES) Killer Instinct came out on the Super Nintendo 31 years ago today. When it came to fighting games on the Super Nintendo, we were a Street Fighter II house. That's the one we played often. But every so often we wanted something else, and this is the one we rented from Blockbuster when my friends stayed the night. If you call this one a button masher, you were the one mashing. Capcom didn't design the combos in Street Fighter II. Players found them and Capcom left them alone. Mortal Kombat barely had them. Killer Instinct put them in on purpose. Openers, auto doubles, linkers, enders, and the counter climbing on screen while it's happening. Then the combo breaker, so you're not just standing there eating it. None of it is hidden. People got beat by it in 1995 and called it cheap, and they're still calling it cheap. Rare put the Killer Cuts soundtrack CD right in the box. A full disc of the game's music, no extra charge, in 1995. This is my wife's favorite fighting game and Orchid is her fighter. She has done things to me with that character that I'm not going to describe here. It isn't perfect. The arcade version ran on hardware the SNES couldn't match and the cart shows it. Ten characters is thin for 1995. Defense is close to decorative, and Eyedol is a wall built to eat quarters in the arcade that nobody bothered fixing for the port. I rate Killer Instinct a 4.5 out of 5.

Killer Instinct or Primal Rage? Primal Rage came out on the Super Nintendo on this day in 1995. Killer Instinct landed five days later on August 30. Killer Instinct is the better game and I don't think that's up for debate. Rare's prerendered sprites, the combo system, the soundtrack CD in the box. Primal Rage is my guilty pleasure. The reviews were rough and I'm not going to argue with any of it. Clay dinosaurs shot frame by frame, fatalities where they eat the little people cheering at the bottom of the screen. It's not a great game but it's absolutely a fun game. Which 1995 fighter did you like more?

Mortal Kombat II or Killer Instinct? Killer Instinct was supposed to be the Mortal Kombat killer. It got a sequel on the N64 and then Rare was done with it. MKII is number two on my all time fighting games list. Killer Instinct is number nine. Which one was the better fighting game?

9. Killer Instinct, SNES (1995) Nothing else on the SNES looked or sounded like this. The pre-rendered fighters, the announcer screaming the combo count at you, C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER, and a soundtrack people still buy on vinyl. Rare put an arcade game on a cartridge and the whole school lost their minds over it.