A truly Killer game!
Killer Instinct sees itself set in the oh so original world of the near future, where the huge multinational corporation Ultratech has set up a fighting tournament in order to test out their latest combat droids. Further accentuating this issue of unoriginality are most of the fighters themselves. There's the token female, who happens to be a secret agent, the token black character, who happens to be a boxer, a ninja, a Native American with axes, and a fair share of different colours for the same character to increase the line-up. This problem is balanced out somewhat by the remainder of the cast, which consists of a werewolf, a veloceraptor, a pirate skeleton warrior, a battle droid and the two headed demon Eyedol, who serves as the game's final boss.
If you had to categorize Killer Instinct, then Mortal Kombat clone would be most appropriate, but on closer inspection there are vast differences between the two. For one, Killer Instinct is a lot faster than Mortal Kombat, as the fighting is incredibly kinetic, playing more like a tennis match, as the two fighters pounce back and forth with great ferocity. What further sets Killer Instinct apart is the completely crazy combo system, which can easily hit the 80 hit mark, well beyond the "Ultra" combo stage. You attain these mind-blowing combos through a mixture of aerial and ground assaults, and these large sustained combos will usually result in your opponent being booted off the stage. Killer Instinct also has its own set of "Fatalities" in the form of "Danger Moves", and are more of a parody than anything else by providing some of the most outlandish death sequences you will ever see.
"Killer Instinct" employs the same pre-rendering technology that was used to make Donkey Kong Country stand out so much, and it works incredibly well with "Killer Instinct". All the characters are vibrantly coloured and highly detailed, along with animating very well, which adds even more speed to the game. "Killer Instinct" also takes advantage of the Super Nintendo's abilities, through the use of parallax scrolling to give the arenas great depth, and Mode 7 to bring the pit deaths to life.
Killer Instinct's soundtrack is rightly lauded as one of the best of all time, as even on its own it is a fantastic trance/dance line-up. While the Super Nintendo versions of the songs have been cut in order to fin on the cartridge, they are still of a high, almost CD like quality. Plus, an OST was released alongside the game with all the original versions of the songs, and is well worth picking up if you are lucky enough to find it online or off.
What really elevates Killer Instinct's longevity above those of other fighting games is the incredibly fast paced and addictive gameplay, which offers an intricate combo system to really get your teeth into. There are also a great deal of difficulty levels to test your skills on, and these further difficulties offer different bosses and endings, and so are definitely worth going through with every character. Killer Instinct also offers far more robust multiplayer options than most games, with the standard one on one mode being accompanied by a tournament mode, which allows for many more people to be involved than would normally be possible.
Closing comments: Most would, and already have, dismissed Killer Instinct as simply another product by Rareware which simply rests on its graphical laurels, and copies other games in the genre for everything else, but this is not true. Yes, Killer Instinct is a stunning game, but also an addictive one, which will last you ages with its incredibly fun gameplay.