Killer Instinct

For the video review, please visit my YouTube page.

Killer Instinct is a fighting game franchise that hasn't seen a lot of action in recent times. It's been 17 years since the release of Killer Instinct Gold for the Nintendo 64. Since then, Rare, the company that made the original Killer Instinct and it's sequel has been purchased by Microsoft and pretty much stopped doing a whole lot besides work on avatars and Kinect based games.

But, this is a whole new KI and a whole new development studio for the game. Unfortunately, Double Helix Games does not exactly have the best track record when it comes to released games; with many of them being rushed to market movie licensed games like Green Lantern and Battleship. However, Killer Instinct breaks this trend of not so great games by the company as they have released a title that is full of fun, if light on content.

Now, fighting games tend to attract a very select group of players. While there are casual fighting game fans out there, the people that tend to really get into fighters are extremely hardcore. They look for things like frame traps, they want to know how safe a move is on block, etc.; in other words, stuff that casual fighting game players don't give a rat's ass about. I tend to fall more in line with the casual fighting game players. While I have some idea what the terms mean when said, I'm not really all that versed on them, nor honestly care about them.

Killer Instinct tries to bridge the gap. It offers a fighting engine and style of play that is easy enough for anyone to pick up and try out and have some fun with… while at the same time being much deeper to learn than it appears on the surface. And, in many ways, the developers at Double Helix have succeeded on that attempt. KI can be extremely fun to just pick up and play with some friends, but still has a lot to offer to the hardcore tournament fighting game players.

To help facilitate this, Killer Instinct has what is, without a doubt, the best fighting game tutorial on the market to date. It very clearly explains to newcomers and casual fighting game players what each lesson will teach, and even lets them know at certain times if they did something the tutorial wasn't looking for. Playing through the 16 basic tutorial lessons can help anyone at least get a grasp on the techniques used in fighting games. Then there are 16 advanced lessons that go through everything from frame data to frame traps to showing how hit boxes work. It's extremely deep and comprehensive… and fucking difficult at the higher levels for casual fighting game fans. But, being difficult at the higher levels doesn't make it any less useful.

If there's one thing that the Killer Instinct Franchise has always been known for, it's combos. In fact, while there were always combos in fighting games, KI was the first to actually string moves together to form combos with actual rewards. Ranging from Triple combos, to Killer Combos, to the match ending Ultra Combos, Killer Instinct was known for it's flashy combos and great sounding announcements of the combos. And this new iteration is no different.

Combos rule the game. The best way to do damage to your opponents is through the combo system. Thankfully, the golden path of KI is extremely easy to get into for pretty much anyone. Starting with a move that is considered an opener, then doing an auto double, then linker, then auto double, then ender is fairly easy for anyone to grasp. Most openers are special moves, and all linkers are also special moves when hitting the light or medium variant of them, while enders are special moves when hitting the heavy version of them. It should be noted that not all special moves can be used as linkers or openers, though, so it's good to know which moves count for them with each character.

New to the series is the idea of potential damage. While in a combo, each hit only does 50% of its damage when it connects, the other 50% is stored as potential damage which is noted by the white section of a health bar. In order to get that potential damage to take effect, the combo must be cashed out with an ender. If the combo is not cashed out, then the potential damage from it slowly disappears. Really good players, though, can use this to their advantage by intentionally dropping combos and getting right into another one which can then cash out the earlier potential damage and the new potential damage from the second combo.

Unlike most other fighting games, though, being on the receiving end of a combo doesn't make a player sit there and simply watch as their opponent potentially lays waste to their entire health bar. The original KI introduced the combo breaker mechanic, and the new KI keeps with it, though with some refinements. Combo breakers are most often done during auto doubles. To execute them, the breaking player needs to hit the punch and kick buttons of the same strength as the auto double being used against them. Success breaks the combo, while failure locks them out from trying again for 3 real time seconds.

But, at the same time, Double Helix decided to add more to the combo breaking system to add to the mind games for higher level play. Now attackers can attempt a bluff, where they try to goad the other player into performing a combo breaker. If the bluff succeeds, then they perform a counter breaker; but if the opponent doesn't try to break, then they are left wide open for counterattack.

It should also be noted that infinite combos, which can take a character from full life to knocked out, are extremely difficult to perform in Killer Instinct. In fact, the only way to do them is to do successful counter breakers multiple times in a combo. KI has a combo meter which fills up as a combo progresses; when it fills up, if the combo hasn't been finished with an ender, then the combo simply ends. Light auto doubles and linkers add a lot to the combo meter while being very fast and hard to break, while heavy doubles and linkers add a lot less, but are easier to break. Shadow linkers do a lot of damage, but do not add to the combo meter. Performing a counter breaker, though, resets the combo meter completely, allowing the attacker to pretty much start over from scratch before the combo will automatically end.

There also the new shadow counter system. While this does use shadow meter to perform, it allows players to get out of shadow moves used against them, but it also allows them to get out of pressure moves being used against them that keep them from getting out of a block animation. The uses are situational, but it's a nice little touch.

Another new addition is the Instinct Mode. This is a bar under the health bars that fills up as a player takes damage or performs combo breakers. Activating this mode is done by pressing both the heavy punch and heavy kick buttons at the same time. Each characters instinct mode is different in its ability, but all characters can use them to cancel combos they are performing to reset the combo meter or to make unsafe moves safe.

Playing games of KI is something else. It's smooth and fast. The game never drops below 60 frames per second, even when there's tons of particles and other effects on the screen. That high frame rate is felt while playing and keeps the action moving at a brisk pace.

It also helps that the game is absolutely gorgeous. Great lighting effects, particle effects, reflections, self shadowing… and more is all here. Backgrounds are a sight to see, and watching the animations in action is just something to behold.

The sound is also great. Meaty hits, character voices, great music and the announcers all add to the feeling. In a great fan requested touch, Double Helix was also able to get the original announcer back to be unlocked in this version. And he still sounds great.

Now, when it comes to the online play, which is a main focus of the game, I can't say enough good about it. So far, I have experienced practically zero lag. Seriously, the net code in KI, mixed with the fact that Microsoft has supposed to have increased the amount of Xbox Live servers, really feels practically like playing offline… even when I played against someone who was in the UK. The only issue I have had with the online is after someone does a counter breaker bluff, if you try a throw on them, the rollback in the net code can sometimes still give them the counter breaker. Other than that, though, the experience has been near flawless for me, so far.

It's a shame, then, that KI has a lot of shortcomings, mostly due to its content… or, more appropriately, lack thereof.

At launch, Killer Instinct only has 6 characters, 5 classic characters and one brand new one. Any fighting game player, hardcore or casual, can attest that this is a very anemic roster. Two more are scheduled to be released by early next year… but even 8 characters is very small when most players are used to 20+ characters per fighting game now. Though, to play devil's advocate, Microsoft and Double Helix have said they want this game to be able to grow as time goes on, so they plan on releasing yearly seasons that will add to the roster as time goes on. It also allows the opportunity for each character to feel unique in their move set… if not having each character have a unique way of doing moves.

KI also does not have an arcade or story mode at launch. While there is what they have called endless survival, where players just rotate through the roster in ever increasingly difficult fights, it doesn't feel the same as an arcade or full fledged story mode. There is no overall story ending, nor any character specific endings. Players can also just do one on one vs matches against the CPU, but, again, it's not the same. Arcade mode is planned to be added, but it's not there at launch, and that could put off a lot of potential buyers, especially those not into trying to learn to play online.

It's also a huge disappointment that the online modes are limited to just unranked exhibition matches and ranked matches. There are no online lobbies to join, no spectator mode, etc. After the huge fan love of these things in other fighting games, especially the more recent NetherRealm Studios games, this is a tough pill to swallow, even if it will be added in at a later date. That doesn't help right now.

Inviting players to unranked matches is also extremely convoluted, but this might have more to do with the Xbox One's party and friends list systems than game design.

Some people might also have some issues with the controls. While the D-Pad on the Xbox One is far better than the D-Pad on the Xbox 360, I still found issues with it. Most often me not being able to reliably perform special moves when I was on the right of the screen. This has been echoed by a few other people on the Killer Instinct forums, as well. The Analog stick can work, but, personally, if I'm going to use a stick, I would rather use an actual arcade stick over an analog stick that might misinterpret inputs due to it's more fluid and loose movement.

Killer Instinct is also a 6 button fighting game, with 3 punches and kicks as attacks that range in power from weak to heavy. It's a system that's been in use for a very long time, dating back at least to the original Street Fighter; and the original KI games also used it. And, like all games that use that system on controllers with only four face buttons, there's a bit of an issue to be had there. Because attacks are mapped to the bumpers and triggers, it doesn't always feel natural to hit those buttons when playing; at least to me. There is a fightstick for the game, made by MadCatz, but since it is part of their Tournament Edition line, it is very expensive. Clocking in at $200, it's a bit much to expect a lot of people to own, especially at the launch of the system. It would be nice if MadCatz had also released a fight pad, a smaller and cheaper controller sized one, but with 6 face buttons for fighting games.

Even with these potential controller issues, which not everyone will have if they are used to fighting on controllers, Killer Instinct plays exceptionally well.

Now, while it can be a bit tricky to hit the right bumper and trigger to activate instinct mode or try to break heavy linkers, Double Helix smartly added a control feature for standard pad players. By flicking the right analog stick in a certain direction, it acts like pressing both the punch and kick buttons of a certain strength. Up is for heavy, left or right is for medium and down is for light. This works for combo breakers, throws (both light attacks) and counter breaker bluffs. I, personally, feel this is a great addition, and it has made it so much easier when trying to perform heavy breakers or to enter instinct mode for me.

There's also the payment method being used for the game. The basic generous demo is free. It comes with all the modes in the game, including online play, but limits players to a single character to use. This character is currently Jago, but the plan is to rotate the roster for demo players, allowing them to try a different character out, possibly every month. Additional characters can be purchased for $5 a pop… but currently only 4 of the 6 included characters are available for purchase. I actually met one person who had bought all four separately…

But then there are two different pay version of the game for purchase. The first is a $20 version that comes with all 6 characters plus the two more being released, a $10 savings, opens up the accessories option and allows players to unlock achievements. Then there's a $40 version that comes with everything in the $20 version, an extra set of already unlocked accessories, future downloads of classic skins and the original Killer Instinct arcade game emulated.

Now, let me be clear about something. Very clear. If you are not an old school KI fan who has been waiting for an emulated release of the original arcade game for consoles, then the $40 version is simply too much to pay for. The three extra accessories for each character and the upcoming classic skins are not exactly something that anyone but absolute completionists or old school KI fans are going to probably care about. I am an old school fan, so I did pay for it, but I am not advocating it for anyone but old school fans.

Microsoft has said they plan on having an upgrade system to help people who may have bought 1 or 2 characters only pay the difference to the $20 version to unlock the rest… but, again this is not in at launch. If anyone is unsure if they want more characters, I suggest waiting a bit until this plan is put in.

The last let down is a minor one, but still a bit mind boggling. Players have to spend the in-game currency to unlock the stages for vs battles, local or online. It's minor, but still a bit odd that it was done.

It's impossible to deny that Killer Instinct is an extremely fun game to play. Casual players can pick up at least the demo and probably find themselves enjoying it, and probably even the $20 version. The game just feels good when playing, even if someone isn't a tournament level fighting game player. Double Helix Games really nailed the game play of KI; but the short development cycle and the push to get the game out at the launch of the Xbox One has left the options for playing and character roster extremely limited.

Killer Instinct is definitely not for everyone, but I enjoy it. I just wish a lot of what is supposed to be coming down the pipe at later dates was already here. But, I'm still going to enjoy doing ultra combos for a long time to come. It's low price point for the $20 version , plus the generous free demo allows for a minimal barrier of entry for newcomers to the series; but I fear they may get bored of the lack of game modes fairly quickly. It's not for everyone, but fighting game fans should get a lot of good times out of it.