Gives Mortal Kombat a run for it's money

User Rating: 8.5 | Killer Instinct SNES
Ever since Mortal Kombat from Midway, no fighting game of it's kind has been able to top it. When Rare came up with Killer Instinct for the Snes, it wasn't exact at it's best. The graphics were horrible, and the fighting was too complex, but It did have potential. A couple of years later, Killer Instinct Gold was ported for the N64, and then, there was light. The graphics were better, a few new characters, and the highlight of the game, the combo system. Still to this day I must say it still is one of the best combo systems out there. But much like Rare to make things complicated, they have a weird boundary with violence. Blood can be unlocked and seen, but the Ultimates (Fatalities), are in what I like to call a "Limbo". While most of them are very brutal, they don't actually sell it. Never once are the characters decapitated, or lose any figure of themselves other than be reduced to ash. In one finisher, the character Combo, pulls out a machine gun and unloads bullets into the other character, and they only fall to their defeat...no bullet holes, no nothing. Sabrewulf's finisher, a bunch of bats carry the victim above the screen, and a horror theme is played while the screen flashes, and blood falls onto the screen....but the character is never seen, and doesn't show what shape they are in. So in a way, they tried to be every bit as brutal as Mortal Kombat, but wouldn't show it. But the special moves, the combo system, the characters, I believe it was one of Rare's better games. And due to the hype of most critics, who believe it was just another MK rip-off, take this in for a moment. Midway, who created and designed MK, also helped publish KI, so if they think it was good enough, then it must be.