
The technological sands may have been shifting dramatically back in 1994, but the ripples from the groundbreaking impact of Capcom’s Street Fighter II were still being felt in the games industry. While the 32-bit era was looming and sophisticated new games machines were introducing players to the immersive thrills of 3D worlds, the humble 2D one-on-one fighter was still a big draw in both arcades and at home – so when Nintendo announced that it was producing its own take on the genre via the Rare-made Killer Instinct, it understandably caught the attention of the entire industry.
Killer Instinct turned 25 yesterday and was a landmark release not just for Nintendo, but for Rare, the company that, in the early '90s, Nintendo bought a 25 percent stake in (this would eventually rise to 49 percent before the entire company was purchased by Microsoft for $375 million in September 2002). Back in 1994, Rare was a relatively compact UK outfit which operated out of a quaint farm building in the middle of the sleepy English countryside – a million miles away from the grim battlegrounds portrayed in its one-on-one brawler.
Announced alongside Donkey Kong Country and the highly divisive Crusin’ USA, the game was part of a technological offensive designed to keep Sega, Sony, Atari and 3DO at bay. Rare’s far-sighted investment in expensive Silicon Graphics systems resulted in some of the first truly convincing CGI visuals to be seen in a video game; while the SNES-based Donkey Kong Country would arguably extend the lifespan of its host console by a few years, the powerful coin-op Killer Instinct was destined for the upcoming Ultra 64 home system, previously known as Project Reality. The thunder of Nintendo’s rivals had been well and truly stolen.
A lot was riding on these games, with Killer Instinct, in particular, being a point of intense interest for the games media. This was, Nintendo promised, a solid indication of what the Ultra 64 (which, of course, would later become known as the Nintendo 64) was capable of; the arcade unit’s splash screen even dangled the carrot that it would be “available for your home in 1995, only on Nintendo Ultra 64.” In reality, Killer Instinct was running on largely bespoke hardware that had little in common with the N64 system, but it was a marketing beat that worked.
"Rare managed to persuade Nintendo that it should make a game which represented the N64's power, but which did not run on the actual, final N64 hardware," says Martin Hollis. "The problem with new platforms is that first, you need the hardware, then you can produce the software; this obviously means a huge delay in getting to market. Nintendo had some incentive to put the cart before the horse, you could argue; it wanted to show off its powerful new home system sooner rather than later. Also Rare had a history of developing amazing coin-op hardware, and there was a team at Rare with an interest in making a fighting game. All of these factors made Killer Instinct a reality."
For Hollis, Killer Instinct was his first project at Rare, and was something of a baptism of fire. "The original plan was to make a new machine based on the R4600 MIPS CPU, which was very similar to the Nintendo 64's target CPU," he explains. "Rare would design the machine, memory and motherboard – basically everything except the hard drive and the soundboard, which I believe originated from Midway, which was also involved with the game. The central hardware was basically an N64 without the graphics chip." Hollis would write the operating system for this platform but also found time to include a few little bonus features. "Like many arcade games, Killer Instinct had a high score screen where you entered your name using a laborious system where you scrolled through all the letter options to find your initials. I added a second method of entering your chosen letters, where the player could press two buttons simultaneously – like with many combos in-game – and each combination of buttons would produce a different letter. So, if you know the correct combinations to use, you could enter your initials in less than a second."
Given Nintendo’s family-friendly stance, the decision to create a one-on-one fighter was seen by some as an odd one; while arcade behemoth Williams – which owned Midway – was involved from a distribution perspective (the deal between Nintendo, Rare and Williams also included the much-maligned Crusin’ USA), there were some who doubted that a Nintendo game released post-Mortal Kombat would deliver the goods in terms of old-fashioned violence, prompting Nintendo's director of marketing George Harrison to publicly assure fans that no limitations would be placed on the developers in terms of content.
At the core of Killer Instinct’s game engine was a fascination with double-digit combo attacks. Combos had been a part of fighting games almost since the genre began, but it was Street Fighter II which made them a key component of gameplay. While mastering special moves was of utmost importance, expert players could memorise combinations of attacks which would slot together elegantly, giving their rival little time to respond. Killer Instinct took this concept to the next level, creating massive chains of moves which, to a certain degree, were automated – but they still required the player to commit to memory a massive sequence of inputs and could be halted by the other player using “combo breaker” moves.
While Killer Instinct’s gameplay was distinctive enough to ensure that it stood out against the likes of Mortal Kombat II, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury Special and Super Street Fighter II, it was the CGI visuals which predictably generated the most interest. The pre-rendered fighters looked stunning, while the backgrounds (in reality FMV sequences which played backwards and forwards as the stage scrolled left and right) gave the game a sense of depth and scale that few other fighters of the period could muster. “My first ever job was modelling a haunted house for a werewolf,” says Chris Seavor, who worked on the game just after joining Rare and would go on to create Conker’s Bad Fur Day. “It reminded me of a comment my mum constantly heckled me with as a kid... ‘You’ll never make any money playing games all day..’.. I won that one.”
Kev Bayliss, who would craft the unique character designs as well as many of the moves, felt it was a dream project. "For me, it was all I ever wanted to make, a fighting game," he tells us. "So I was really excited not just to be able to make one, but to use the new tech for the graphics which I thought would really help make it stand out. Street Fighter 2 and Double Dragon were so great looking in my opinion and I was worried about being able to make something that looked as iconic, but fortunately it all worked out and I’m really over the moon that the original still gets talked about today."
Killer Instinct felt like the future, and was supported by an excellent soundtrack courtesy of Robin Beanland and Graeme Norgate. Like Hollis and Seavor, Killer Instinct was Beanland's first game at Rare. “Myself and Graeme started at Rare on the same date – 5th of April, 1994," he tells us. "I had no idea what I’d be working on, or how I’d be creating music for a video game. I had visions of slowly inputting hexadecimal into a computer keyboard. As it turned out, we were going to be making music and SFX for a new arcade game using the Williams DCS sound system. Which meant we could use all the MIDI synths and samplers we were used to – we just had to squeeze it all into 4MB, a luxury at the time. I had a makeshift vocal booth at the end of my office which was made up from washing line and blankets! It did the trick though and we used it for Killer Instinct 1 and 2.”
Hitting arcades on October 24th 1994, the game made an immediate impact on fighting game enthusiasts, and those Ultra 64-teasing splash screens naturally got people excited about an arcade-perfect home release in a year’s time. Of course, this didn’t quite happen; the Ultra 64 was delayed by Nintendo, and to plug the gap, Rare ported Killer Instinct to the incumbent SNES instead, albeit with a wide range of cut-backs and changes. While everything was noticeably weaker in terms of presentation, the 16-bit home port still retained the core gameplay that made its arcade parent so compelling – and the fact that it came with a ‘Killer Cuts’ CD soundtrack album only made it even more appealing.
"That was a lot of fun," recalls Beanland. "With no memory constraints, we were basically given free rein to make extended versions of the tracks. We picked AIR Studios to do the final mix as they had the only fully digital desk (at that time) in the UK. Our thinking was that we could run the audio out of our digital outputs to the digital desk and keep everything in the digital domain and lossless. The fantastic Geoff Foster had other ideas though; he took the audio out of the desk to an analog tape machine and then back so it sounded nice and warm. He was absolutely right of course!"
Despite missing the much-hyped Ultra 64 release in 1995, Killer Instinct would become a tentpole release for Nintendo and Rare; it was even ported to the monochrome Game Boy, a real leap of faith that wasn’t quite as successful as the SNES port, but still undeniably impressive. An arcade sequel did the rounds in 1996 with additional characters in tow, and was almost ported to the SNES. However, it would ultimately end up on the N64 under the guise of Killer Instinct Gold, which replaced the FMV backgrounds with full-3D stages. The N64 controller was never going to be the best input device for an intense 2D fighter, but Killer Instinct Gold was nonetheless an excellent home version and finally allowed fans to experience something closer to the visual glory of the coin-op original in their living rooms.
And that was the end of the story, until quite recently. Microsoft revived the Killer Instinct brand with the 2013 free-to-play Xbox One reboot, handled by Double Helix Games (and later by Iron Galaxy Studios, following Amazon’s purchase of Double Helix), under the watchful eye of Ken Lobb, who worked with Rare on the 1994 original. The game has been positively received and shows that, even after a quarter of a century, Killer Instinct still has an audience. While it’s unlikely to appear on a Nintendo console again (we’re not giving up hope, however), it would be nice to think that we'll still be talking about this remarkable fighting game in another 25 years.
Comments (56)
This is the game I was hoping MS was going to port over to Nintendo. It's only fitting.
Great piece Damo, always enjoy reading these history of gaming/gaming series features. 😀
Killer Instinct answered the question, "What if Mortal Kombat didn't feel so bad to play?"
I love KI and remember buying the game that came with a CD with the soundtrack. Which was and it still awesome!
Can't believe Nintendo produced and lost the franchise.
@tourjeff because they were the biggest selling hardware and almost all games went right to the snes because it was a hit. of course gimmicks like this was meant to be brought to the market. And the crisis wasn't there yet. We were in golden time during the nes/snes times IMO. gaming today.. sorry the music that they add is very very basic (maybe a few games are good) but most are not good. How many new games have you played that kept you coming back to youtube just to listen to the OST? I bet a very few. Look @ breath of the Wild.. very silent game. At least with Ocarina there was all the time music in the fields. It get to you in the atmosphere and it was fun exploring. Now just silence and just sound effect and maybe now and then here a tune....
Now we're left with ARMs
This is still one of Nintendo's biggest missteps in not acquiring Rare or the Rare properties.
The title should be replaced to Rareware.
@Alucard83 that is true, I think that SNES /Mega Drive / PS1 were truly the golden Era of gaming. Obviously I'm not saying that there are no good games today but back then it was magical to see the hardware development and new things that could have been done with what the Devs had available around them.
The soundtrack of games is another point that you are absolutely right, nowadays I cannot think of any song from a game that I can remember. However, I can remember many songs from games from the 90s.
And songs from a variety of different genres, which just proves how creative the Devs were.
Now they push to us the basic of basic so that they can save money.
Miss those gaming days.
@Alucard83 when you get a chance it’s worth listening to the soundtrack of DKTF. It’s fantastic!
In general though, I think your comment is pretty spot on re: music. Many games miss out on this unique opportunity especially since hardware is no longer the limitation it once was.
Such a feeling, such a feeling, such a feeling, killer feeling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTr9K454v6s
I bought KI definitive edition on PC on a whim and it turned into my second favorite fighting game ever. The characters are so unique and fun to use. The fighting system is fun to execute and a spectacle to the eyes. The story is cheesy and dumb, and that's what makes it great. The microtransactions can go to hell, but otherwise its a fantastic game. My favorites are Riptor, Sabrewulf, Jago, Shago, Hisako, and Spinal.
I also would love to see Fulgore in Smash Bros. Just gotta make sure they bring the C-C-C-C Combo Breaker!!!!!
@Alucard83 I recently got a PS4 and finally played Bloodborne and the Dark Souls Trilogy. I can say I have been going back to listen to the OST, it is that great (I even bought Bloodborne's OST). BotW has a lot of ambience sounds (which is necessary, listening to a field track like in Ocarina or Twilight for hours would be terrible game design), but it also has a lot of good tracks here and there. The OST contains more than 200 pieces and I usually play it during my commute. I don't think that music in videogames was necessarily better back then (and I'm not saying that music nowadays is better either), we only remember it more fondly because we grew up with it.
My brother and I saved our money and bought the SNES that was bundled with Killer Instinct. I became an unstoppable beast with Orchid's Ultra Combo that my siblings wouldn't want to play with me anymore.
Ah, Mr Ken Lobb. I remember him from Goldeneye....
Ahh I remember playing this with my brother all the time. Brings back some good memories.
What an epic game!!!
@Xylnox and i still play killer instinct on the n64 once in a while, it's a classic it's a shame it will never return back to nintendo consoles.
I remember the game from the N64 box and I got a copy with my OG Gameboy. Last year someone had given away a load of N64 games, complete in boxes at my local charity store. Smash Bros. was too steep at £50 but I did but Killer Instinct complete in box for £15 which seemed fair for a charity donation. Good, silly beat em up, but I’m as bad at them now as when I played Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition on the Mega Drive when I was 12 😂
When I got the xbox one, I made sure to get all the killer instinct games, even ki gold on rare replay.
Why is there not a single screenshot of killer instinct in this article, aside from the 2013 one?
Loved this as a kid and still listen to the "Killer cuts" CD to this day. What an amazing sound track. The title theme still brings back amazing memories. I also really loved Gold on the N64. I so wish N could have a chat with MS and come to some arrangement to get these on the switch.
Killer Instinct was and is my favorite fighting game. And the game i want most from Microsoft, although i did buy Cuphead. I would love to see an arcade port but in HD. I would gladly put up $100 if there was a Kickstarter for an HD arcade port for Switch/consoles.
@Zidentia I say the opposite, almost nothing worthwhile came from Rare after Nintendo. They did well selling Rare. They had good times with the SNES and N64, but it ended there.
This game on SNES was insane.... I love, love, LOVED it! That black cartridge...
I regularly play KI1 on my Xbox regularly. In hindsight it's a really flawed and simplistic fighting game, but I still love it, I spent way too much time playing it in my teen years. KI2 had some cool additions, but IMO didn't feel the same. I hate the new one though, I want to like it, but can't stand playing it. The characters look awful and there's way too many effects going on.
They actually updated the 2013 version for years to perfection.
I LOVE the super nintendo version. I played that SO MUCH during my college years. NO ONE could top me with Fulgore lol! It has gameplay upgrades that are NOT talked about compared to the awesome arcade version. You can link combo openers that you simple cannot do on the arcade. From a gameplay standpoint, the Super Nintendo version is the best. I actually HAVE a Killer Instinct 1 and 2 arcade machine with the original tube monitor....LOVE that game, nintendo should NEVER have let rare go. I so much hope they release KI SNES for switch(still have my cart!)
@nab1 Not wild about the new one either. Original KI is the ONE. All time classic fighter!
@Kidfunkadelic83 OMG, still have my Killer Cuts CD too! Right on man!
Killer Instinct 1 theme song/arcade intro....just because it's awesome damnit!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMLHHxV0vWU
The Gameboy port was amazing, unlike the other fighting ports it didn't have massive slowdown and the controls felt natural! I was a Sabrewulf master in it (KI was the pack in game when I got my GB) going from spins to rolls in a matter of seconds slashing anything in my path to confetti!
As a pure fighting game I rank it #2 behind SoulCalibur.
Also this was Rare not Nintendo. Although Rare was Nintendo in the 90s.
@nab1
They still could have capitalized on some of the IP regardless.
Between KI and KI Gold both, this is probably my most played fighting series.
Lovely article, so nice to reminisce about the SNES era and in particular Killer instinct. In agreement with many on here that it was the true golden age of gaming.
I still play killer instinct Gold on n64, still enjoy it to this day, always has a space in my game collecting heart
@Roto13 I loved the finishing moves as a kid for Mortal Kombat, and the character roster but the actual fighting I was terrible at and would just cheese it to get to the finisher sequence. Killer Instinct was the first fighting game I was ever interested in learning the combos for, KI and KI: Gold are still my favorite fighting games.
The Xbox One reboot of Killer Instinct remains my favorite fighter of all time for whatever reason. Try as I might, I've never managed to get into the genre until that one came out a few years back, at least nothing that wasn't Street Fighter II. I remember the playing the original KI when it came to arcades and SNES, and I definitely dumped a lot of money into it, but it never really clicked with me like the recent reboot. As a franchise though, I absolutely love the characters, the look, everything else about it - just not the original game.
@huyi ha ya, i have the SNES version myself. Pop it in once in a while and play it with my nephew. The juggling was so horrid in the game. Heh
Killer Instinct was a great game on the SNES, and I played it for months. I'm sure I still have that Killer Cuts CD somewhere too!
@tourjeff That Killer Cuts CD soundtrack is still one of my most-played albums from my extensive videogame music library.
It’s simply some of the best, cleanest ‘90s music I’ve ever heard, and nearly every character theme is memorable. I think it even beats the awesome Street Fighter Image arrange album
@sixrings Yep, now we're left with ARMS...
...WHICH IS AMAZING!
Ohh man, my friend still have a SNES and a copy of this cool black cartridge. Our battles between Glacius and Combo were epics.
@Alucard83 So I’ve tried playing all manner of Zelda music over Breath of the Wild (using extended Youtube versions) and come to find... it gets way to repetitive to have to loop the tracks so long.
(Even a complex, multi-movement piece like Ocarina’s “Hyrule Field” isn’t enough to cover it comfortably)
Breath of the Wild is one of the most spatially massive worlds in the history of gaming and to have to write a song for every distinct region or area would have , quite frankly, been financially un-feasible for Nintendo. Especially if you take into account the quality of music Zelda fans demand. Nintendo knew exactly what it was doing in regards to the soundtrack and the near silence of it lets the player take the awesome world in at their own pace and without unnecessary distraction. All the better to hear that Korok Mask or Shrine signaling a secret nearby.
@sixrings Arms was fun tho.
@judaspete I should go back and play a few rounds if there's still anyone online.
ki
The best fighting game ever created in my opinion.
Great game, great article. Got the game for my birthday back then. 25 years ago you say ?? Oh well...
The only ultra combos I could pull off were Orchid’s (go cartwheels!) and Cinder’s.
Nice to read a Rare story that isn’t DKC or Goldeneye, so thanks for the read!
I remember getting KI for the SNES back in Xmas 1995 along with SNES Doom. Most of my time was spent with Doom (I was obsessed with original Doom back then) so KI didn’t get much of a look in. I’m not the biggest beat em fan, and I don’t think I ever managed to pull off an Ultra combo, so I didn’t get to enjoy it to its full potential. Still, I have great memories of its graphics and style and that awesome music CD!
I love the original first two Killer Instinct games both in the arcade and on the Super NES and N64. Also Killer Instinct, unlike most of the other popular fighting games at the times, is just one of few fighting games that never cheap out in making characters for their game by way of palette swap. A trend which Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat heavily rely on just to have new characters. This makes all the cast in Killer Instinct feel unique as they don't share the same physique, move, or sprite with one another.
I had the Game Boy at that time, and a recently bought Mega Drive, so I got Killer Instinct GB version, and I loved it. Back then I didn't know about a SNES version, or just didn't care, but I sure was oblivious to the arcade original.
Got an Xbox One partly because of the 2013 Killer Instinct, although I finally haven't played it, blame my backlog.
@tourjeff Well.. yes.. except Ps1 wasn’t the same (gaming) era... but I get your point.
So many good memories of this game. God, 25 years. I feel old.
Ugh, I remember playing this in 1995 in the movie theater and being blown away
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