Title: Killer Instinct 2
Editor: Rare
Format: PCB + external hard drive; requires 6 boutons/a kick harness; needs -5V.
Release year: 1995
Simultaneous players: 2
Style: Fight
Adapted on: Nintendo N64 under the name “Killer Instinct Gold” in 1996
Introduction:
Killer Instinct 2 (KI2) is the follow-up of Killer Instinct (KI), released in 1994 by Nintendo. Killer Instinct was a revolution (even if it was not sold by Apple…) in terms of graphics and gameplay. KI had to “fight” against successful arcade/console hits like “Super Street Fighter II X”, “Tekken” or “The King Of Fighters 94”. It had, however, a huge success, first in arcade room, then on the Nintendo SNES (selling over 3 million units [1]). KI2 was released at the end of 1995, when “Mortal Kombat III” (MK III), “The King Of Fighters 95” (KOF 95’), “Street Fighter Alpha 2” or “Tekken 2” were already released. Hard to get a place of choice so to say… The game was adapted on the Nintendo 64 under the name “Killer Instinct Gold” in 1996 and sold 800 000 copies worldwide [2]. Clearly, KI and KI2 represented a real alternative to the well-established japan-style beat’em up game. Rare was a UK editor and KI2 makes you fill it. Let’s get a taste of Saxon fighting style!
“Mortal Kombat III”
“The King Of Fighters 95”
“Street Fighter Alpha 2”
“Tekken 2”
http://www.gameclassification.com/fi...s/Tekken-2.png
Plot:
The story takes place after Killer Instinct I. After Orchid has defeated Eyedol (KI boss), a time rift has been opened and thrown the characters 2000 years back in time, where they find the prehistorical new characters and a new enemy (Lord Gargos) to fight against.
Characters:
There are 10 +1 (hidden) characters. Most of the characters have a weapon of choice. Except Glacius (but he is an Alien… So he does not count) and TJ combo (finally a real mean fighting with bare hands: take that, samouraille shadow !).
Returning Characters: 7
Combo is powerful, fast, likes to throw arcade cabinet through windows and probably gay. He shares the same taste of slim fit sport shirts with Jago. He is quite a complete character with combo openings very efficient on the three levels (overhead, chest and legs). He has, however, no fireball. He is more of a eginner character. You can get to 10 hit combo routinely in an hour of practice with him. His Ultra combo looks good, even if it ends with the same move as Balrog special performed in “Street fighters: the movie”… Fulgore was easy to start with in KI. He’s not anymore. His combos are little bit harder to perform rapidly. His weapons are laser-claw and he throw laser beam with his cybernetic eyes. It has a dragon punch, a fireball and a teleport, which give rise to very good looking combo (including eye lasers!). While quiet similar to KI, his character has been redesigned slightly. He looks thinner but is still terrible to fight.
Glacius has been re-designed so that he is scarier; well it works! Glacius has beautiful and very well animated special moves. He has got strong combo openers and playing with him is a real pleasure. Not for beginner however, more intermediate players. One last thing: his “ultra” rocks!
He is supposed to be “the Hero” here, and he is! Depsite his gay appearance, he is a very powerful and technical character. A lot of his move/special moves were already present in KI. He is not, in my opinion, a character for beginner, but for more experienced players. His got his weapon back from KI, a saber. Heu sorry, a Katana.
Here is my man! I love spinal. I am unfortunately not good enough to play with him. He is, to my mind, the most technical character of KI. I think that someone who knows perfectly how to use spinal can beat anyone with this wonderful and original character. Spinal uses a large Persian saber to cut his opponents into pieces and is the only characters who has a shield. His shield does not only serve to protect what’s left from his body, but it is absorbing opponent energy, to enhance his special moves.
Aaaaaaannnnnnd she’s back! Larger boobs, nicer ass, Orchid will stay the favorite character for all teenager players. The light sabers have now been replaced by two tonfas. She is still the queen of killer combo, fast and easy to perform. You will enjoy her!
The warewolf is back for our very own pleasure. He has been successfully redesigned. His combo openers have been modified. I think Sabrewulf was very powerfull and one of my favourite KI character. However, I find him rather weak in this episode but hey! Don’t tell him! His weapons are his claws (and his teeth) and he knows how to use them in his many combo openers.
Here is our Conan the barbarian. Tusk is powerful. However, I find him limited in terms of combo openings. He’s got a hell of a special move with his large sword, but it is too predictable. This should not make us forget how beautiful his scenery is…
Here comes the kung-fu girl! She’ll probably give you some hard time with her nunchacks. Kim Wu, while I did not play her too much with her, seems a very strong character. Her character design is appreciable. She is fast and her combo openers are easy to link. Clearly, she can be a top character for someone who wants to spend some time with her .
Wouuuu amazon… Ok, man put back your pants, she’s got two very long crocodile Dundee knives. Maya is quite fast and her combo openers are devastative. I usually do not like women in fighting games, but one has to say that Maya, with Orchid does the job very well here. Maya can be used by both beginners and confirmed. They’ll find pleasure manipulating her…
Game modes:
You do not have too much choice. That’s arcade man! You have the choice between fighting alone against the CPU or fight against a partner. Actually, you can’t even chose (hey, that’s arcade man!), either you have a friend to play with, either you start alone. Right after putting a coin in, you get to the selection screen, backed up by an excellent music:
The selection screen respects totally the atmosphere of the game (what, who said unlike MOTW ???) the arts are animated and enormous, no chance you miss your favorite character.
Sceneries:
Every character has its own 3D fighting stage. An effort has been made to make every of them very different. The stages can evolve with time and the effects are original and well thought. As examples, one can mention Sabrewulf ‘swall breaking (my favorite of all stages) or Orchid’s exploding barrels. Just as in KI, at the end of a fight, you can eject your opponent outside the stage and you get animated fall, ending in a bloody death… The fighting stages of Sabrewulf, Orchid, Tusk and Spinal are real piece of arts. On the other side, Kim and Jago’s could have benefit from more animations and details. From the old characters of KI that left the cast, Cinder’s scenery was kind of the worst of all and basically, Kim’s stage is a pale updated copy of it. Thankfully, the two other new characters came with
astonishing sceneries.
You can click on the links below to see all the fighting stages and some of their specificities.
Orchid:http://youtu.be/n4u6Qrd2c78
Glacius: http://youtu.be/1HwY33swJx0
Kim: http://youtu.be/IJavkODPcYA
TJ Combo: http://youtu.be/kLp0bplgPWA
Fulgor: http://youtu.be/IOsF3TfOwGY
Spinal: http://youtu.be/zuB_4gC0LRQ
Jago: http://youtu.be/9v_H55FN1mg
Maya: http://youtu.be/J-DCzRLGCZ0
Tusk: http://youtu.be/oqHWaVPpO1s
Sabrewulf: http://youtu.be/Qwkooqlnz_M
Ejection: http://youtu.be/OmAHOZr3FX8
Gameplay:
Killer Instinct 2 is a 6-button game with 3 punches and 3 kicks. You block by going backwards. KI2 is a combo-oriented fighting game, as in KI, but the combo-character has been enhanced for this episode. You can forget about fireballs and the usual jump/low-kick/uppercut. Combos are lunched by combo openers, which are in general special moves. There are manual combos, as in other fighting games and automatic combos, which were already present in KI. In KI2, the automatic combos take an even bigger place during fights. You activate them by pressing a particular sequence of buttons. In KI2, you can break your opponent combo with a move: the “combo-breaker”. Each character can make combo breaker. It is a very interesting part of KI2. Indeed, usually, in other 2D fighting games, once you start a combo, it cannot be stopped, except if you make a mistake. This can lead to very boring fight and usually to some bug where you can do infinite combos, most of the time blocking an opponent in one part of the screen. However, the combo breaker timing has been “soften” compared to the one in the first KI episode; this makes the combo-breaker move easier to perform and can be a little bit frustrating for the one which starts combo. To balance that, now you have to pick up the correct combo breaking move, depending on your opponent attack (punch or kick). There is no perfect system, but I would definitely go for the one which gives the chance to break a combo…
Last but not least: the “parry move”. Basically, this move offers you the possibility to anticipate an attack from your opponent by blocking it with the correct timing. If you manage it, you’ll be allowed a small time window to kick your opponent’s ass (hint: time to start a combo here!). In addition to that, you can now do some throw-up during a combo, making a “Juggle Combo”. Another specific detail of KI, combos have name: hyper, monster, brutal etc. depending on the number of moves in your combo. The way you did it (manual or automatic) is indicated. Because of its combo-oriented fighting system, most people who dislike it will argue that KI2 is just a successive sequence of combo-opener/break/combo openers/break. Let’s just remind these people that this sequence is actually the basic of every modern fighting games, combo openers just being classic hits.
Every character has several special moves and some have fireballs. Most of the special moves can be executed with the usual “quarter circle + punch/kick” sequence, or with a back-charge. The special moves, except for fireballs, are here to start combos. Note it is easier to start long combos with weak special moves. Every character possesses a Super bar that charges as you hit your opponent. Once filled enough, this bar allows you to perform a super special move, hitting several times your opponent.
Finally, KI2 would not be a KI if there were not the Ultra combos, Ultimate combos and special finishes: the “no mercy”! You can make Ultra Combos when your opponent lifebar is blinking. It is usually a >15 hits combos that kills your opponent. This gives you the right to a “supreme victory” and a special animation at the end of your fight. No mercy are like fatalities in MK, except you can make them only when your opponent's life-bar blinks.
Special moves:
Super special moves:
Combos:
Combo Breaker:
Ultra Combo:
No Mercy:
Super special moves:
Combos:
Combo Breaker:
Ultra Combo:
No Mercy:
Graphics:
KI2 is an hybrid 2D/3D fighting game. Indeed, the stages are in 3D, the characters are in 3D, but they are only allowed to move in 2D. In that sense, it compares to the MK series. The character design is excellent all-in-all, but some details should be noted. The texture of Combo, Tusk and Jago bodies can look a little too plastic. A criticism can be made on the size of the head of the characters which is large relative to the body size. In my opinion, it is actually a good thing, it enhances the impressive feeling that you get playing KI2. While the game wants itself dark and deep, it manages to be colorful. It uses the green/gold mix, pink or white-blue colors in order to have the character’s clothes more visible. The weapons are either white, gold or white-blue for the same reason. Most of the sceneries are graphically impressive, colorful and well detailed (except Jago and Kim’s one).
Animation:
The characters animation is not as detailed as in MK, but stays impressive for characters of this size. It is fluent and beautiful to watch. As an example, take a look at the flames in Sabrewulf stage. Your can regret a few slowing down when parts of some sceneries explode. The character stands were not neglected here, I think particularly to Sabrewulf... If you are the average joe player as I am, you should not find any missing frame during the fights. One will appreciate the screen moving with opponent falling after a K.O. One criticism can be made when a character is ejected from the scenery after a K.O.: this step could have benefit for a little more work from the programmers. KI2 features action zoom-in/zoom-out. They are of high quality, do not disturb the action and you won’t get sea sick. Another piece-of-art of KI2.
Zoom:
Sounds:
In terms of sounds, you cannot be objective here, either you like it or not: I love it. The strong and deep voice from KI is back. It seems to me as most of the sounds from KI were re-used in KI2, like the famous “cococococo-combo breaker”, the characters special moves or the character names at the selection screen. The voices fit the game atmosphere (deep and dark). Every character has its own voice, for attack or defense. One can regrets Jago’s being too feminine. The women scream a little too much like Sharapova at the end of a long match. The sounds attached to special moves like fireballs or Glacius uppercut move can sound a little bit metallic. This is not a problem in sceneries like Orchid’s or Fulgore’s, this more odd in Tusk’s or Maya’s.
Musics:
One music is attached to every stage. This is one of the strength and originality of KI2. Music is original, deep, follow the atmosphere of the fights perfectly. It can be electronic (Glacius), 80’s (TJ Combo), symphonic (Sabrewulf), ethnic (Maya, Jago) or dance music (Orchid). I have my preference for Sabrewulf music, which fits perfectly with the scenery and the atmosphere.
Conclusion:
Killer Instinct 2 is a UFO in the world of beat’em up games, as was KI at his time. It follows no rules, does not care about conventions, and for this, you either truly love it or hate it. It has a 10+1 character roaster, which is less than all of its main challengers. But contrary to the other games, all characters are really unique in KI2, and every player should find his favorite here. It is an arcade fighting game so one should not be surprised about the only two game modes. The graphics are not much different compare to KI, in technical terms, they are almost perfect (except for the hairs) for a 1995 game. Whether you like them or not is a question of taste. The animation has few minor flows, but again is at the state of the art for 3D-hybrid animated 1995 characters. Just think back to the Tekken 2 design and its polygonal stones, heuu sorry, characters… The sounds and music do more than supporting the plot, it actually takes you through the action, literally into the plot. Compare to KI, there’s been some gameplay modifications, making it a little bit more complex (parry, combo-breaker), and new good characters have replenished the ranks. The sceneries are original and support the game spirit, special mark on Sabrewulf’s, Kim’s being less impressive. Finally, KI2 gameplay is KI series signature and if you want to discover something special that exists in no other beat’m up game, try it! When you plug your Jamma connector together with the kick harness on your Killer Instinct 2 PCB, remember it is a 1995 games, and discover an atmosphere you’ve never had playing a video game before. Let’s get some blooooood!
Wyoui
References:
[1] http://www.vgchartz.com/game/6308/killer-instinct/
[2] http://www.vgchartz.com/game/1111/killer-instinct-gold/
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