This game is by far the greatest fighting game on the Super Nintendo, with amazing graphics, music, and game-play.
The Good
- Amazing graphics
- Awesome soundtrack
- Super tight controls
- Smart use of difficulty settings
- Awesome combos
- Cool characters
- Great replay value
- Awesome story and character back stories
- Intense combat
The Bad
- Can be a bit too hard sometimes
- Figuring out the combo's can be a chore sometimes
The plot is that a mega-corporation (replacing governments) called Ultra-tech, is throwing a tournament called Killer Instinct. In this tournament, alongside regular participants, are experimental creatures, being used by Ultra-tech to test their strength and powers. They are also creating bridges between dimensions. A lot of the characters are very cool, and have really good back stories, like Glacius, who is an alien creature, who crash landed on earth, and was captured by Ultra-tech. Ultra-tech wants to prove him inferior, so they force him to fight for his life. Another character, Cinder, was a failed experiment, and was turned into a living flame. Ultra-tech promises to fix him, but only if he defeats Glacius, and wins the tournament. The plot adds a good element to the game, and really gets you to know the characters, rather than just fight with random beasts.
The game-play in this game is very distinct. Instead of having two separate rounds, each character has two life bars. When one life bar has been used, the fighting stops for a moment, the characters back off a bit, and then continue to fight again. I love this element, because it doesnt break up the action, it keeps you right in the moment. Also, instead of manually having to press the necessary buttons for a combo, they are automated, which helps with the string hit system.
Graphics --- 10/10
I am not afraid to give this game a 10/10 in the graphics department. This game looks freaking amazing. Considering the time it came out, and the system it was for, this game looks incredible. The pre-rendered character models, the mode 7 arena's, the paralax scrolling in the backgrounds, the effects, the finishing move animations (especially the one where you knock the opponent off of a 50 story building and they crash onto a car), the still image portraits of the characters, everything about the graphics in this game are amazing. This game looks like it should be for a 32-bit console.
Music --- 9/10
The music in this game is also amazing, especially the opening/title theme. Each of the songs do an awesome job representing the areas, and get you in the perfect mood to fight. A lot of the songs in this game make the cross over from sounding like video game music, to sounding like real music, its that amazing. The music is clear and catchy, and is over all an amazing soundtrack.
Sound effects --- 9.5/10
The sounds when you strike your opponent are so satisfying. The light attacks have a light sound, the medium attacks add a bit more bulk, and the strong attacks have a huge crash. All of the characters have voice clips, including yells, screams, roars, whimpers, screeches, and anything you can imagine coming from the memorable fighters in the game. Also, the announcer has this awesome deep voice, and is very satisfying to hear.
Controls --- 9.5/10
If there is something other than the amazing graphics, music, and sound effects this game has to offer, its amazing controls. The controls are super tight and smooth, and is easily one of my favorite fighting games to control. The controls are simple, and the combos are always easy to access, and always work when i want them to.
Gameplay --- 9/10
This game is intense, exhilarating, and most of all, FUN. Beating the crap out of your opponents is super satisfying, and the difficulty is just right. The combos never feel like a chore, and this game is rarely frustrating, when you get your a$$ kicked, its your fault, not the cheapness of the computer opponent. This game also has a great multi-player, with multiple modes, fun combat, etc.
Replay ability --- 8/10
I always find myself coming back to play a few rounds of this game, even after I beat it. I never owned this game as a kid, I got it as a gift from my cousin only a few months ago, but we could easily recognize the design, due to us both loving DKC2 as kids, and this games graphics and sound are similar, due to them both being developed by Rare. The game has super memorable graphics and qualities, and it will always remain as my favorite fighter on the Snes, even above Mortal Combat and Street Fighter.
If you go to the options, and select the game in the easiest difficulty, and beat the game, the ending will tell you to go to the next level of difficulty and beat the game again, to fight new characters and such. This adds an immense level of depth and replay ability to the game, because as you beat the game at each level, your skill is increasing and increasing, and you wont even notice until you realize your fighting at maximum difficulty. That doesnt mean the game is easy, but it does make it much more satisfying to learn as a player, rather than getting thrown in with tough opponents right away, and having to learn the hard way, like with most other fighters.
There is so much to talk about in this game, like the awesome characters, great story, cool fighting arenas, incredible sound, music, game-play and controls, neat black cartridge instead of the regular grey, and how revolutionary it was, for an arcade port to a 16-bit console, but i could go on for a while. This is by far the best fighting game on the Snes, and one of the best fighting games of all time, and i would recommend it to any Snes collector, or any fan of fighting games.
9/10
Amazing!