Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition
This week marks the tenth anniversary of 2013's Killer Instinct revival, aptly titled Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition, which in turn makes it one year away from the thirtieth anniversary of the franchise. The Anniversary Edition aims to officially revitalize interest in the title that has received a stable cult following over the years by introducing a new balance patch that addresses some of the game's more problematic characters. Most importantly, it gives everyone who owned the game a clean slate as all existing copies of Killer Instinct will be upgraded to the Anniversary Edition.
Players who were lucky enough to own KI and purchase it during the Steam Autumn Sale now own the base game with all three seasons including post-season three characters for less than fifteen. At the base retail price of $30, for a ten-year game that includes all DLC content, it's not a bad starting point. Like most series revivals, there was the original that took arcades by storm in the 90s.
Originally released in 1994, Killer Instinct was developed by Rare and originally published by Midway for its arcade release. Due to its close relationship with Nintendo at the time, Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2 would be released on the SNES and Nintendo 64, with the latter being released under Killer Instinct Gold. Both fighting games were 2D with the same clever graphic tricks the developers were known for with Donkey Kong Country among others.
Killer Instinct was unlike most fighting games at the time, offering a "best of both worlds" for Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat fans alike. One of the most iconic phrases in fighting game history, the "C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!" was born here. It has become immortalized among arcade regulars and home players respectively. One of the largest fighting game tournaments in the United States had adopted the Combo Breaker brand for years. To understand the significance of the "combo breaker," Killer Instinct was known for its eccentric narrator, a feature that had persisted into 2013's revival. For now, I'll refer to this version as the current "Anniversary Edition"
Combos were always a key feature in Killer Instinct, with the Anniversary Edition providing a modern spin to the classic gameplay mechanic. Each combo begins with an opener, followed by an auto and a linker. The player alternates between auto attacks and linker attacks until they finish the combo with an ender. The ender is used to "cash" out a combo, with the number of hits in a combo determined by four green lights underneath the combo meter. Light autos and linkers fill the combo meter quickly but are difficult to punish while heavy attacks deal more damage, and fill the combo meter less, but are easier to punish. This is where the "combo breaker" comes in.
By guessing the right attack strength as your opponent's while in the middle of a combo, you can interrupt their combo with a special that gives the defender breathing room. In modern fighting games, similar "get out of jail" free cards exist including games like Guilty Gear Strive with the Burst mechanic. Fighters are expected to get hit and mashing out of a combo is the best way to ensure you remain stuck in that combo. Killer Instinct is a game that rewards patient play and identifying patterns. If you feel as if your opponent is being greedy, punish them for their mistakes with a combo breaker.
Shadow Counters up the ante by costing a meter but are universal in that they are far more versatile than a regular combo breaker. However, there is a higher risk as missing a shadow counter can cause the defender to pay for their mistakes. Well attentive players can counter a combo breaker with a counter breaker, giving the advantage right back to the aggressor. There are many ways to deal damage in Killer Instinct and even more to avoid it altogether. It's that kind of high-paced action that doesn't require a high execution barrier that most players can enjoy and appreciate.
Second to "combo breakers" are the very extravagant "ultra combos" which offer nothing to the general gameplay but a cool way to finish off your opponent. Certain characters even have "ultimate" enders that can only be activated when the opponent loses without the winner ever losing a round. Think fatalities in Mortal Kombat are too much? Getting hit with a custom-made hundred-hit combo and seeing your opponent effectively create a movie on your character's corpse is another form of humiliation.
Over the game's three seasons, the roster expanded to twenty-nine fighters, including every fighter from the first two Killer Instinct titles. There has been a total of three guest characters, including Rash from Battletoads, another one of Rare's early IPs. An Arbiter from Halo and General RAAM from Gears Of War are the last two guest characters. It makes sense that two of the guest characters would be from Microsoft's IPs as Killer Instinct is a Microsoft exclusive. What's interesting is that it's not the first time a Halo character was featured in a fighting game with that distinction going towards Dead Or Alive 4.
Killer Instinct has always been a game that is both fun to look at and fun to play. It's a frantic tug-of-war between maintaining an offense and staging a counterdefense. The Anniversary Edition is important for fans of long-term games as it not only gives dedicated players something to enjoy for years on end but also re-establishes a connection with the fans. The official patch notes for Killer Instinct's latest patch go into this as the last major patch was back in 2018. Not every character received buffs but some characters who had problematic matchups did.
I'm not familiar with the competitive scene for Killer Instinct as much as other fighters. I knew Rash was a problem character who was slippery even for a Toad who knew how to Battle. Perhaps these improvements help level the playing field from the "overturned" to the characters desperately needing a tune-up. For fresh-faced players like myself, while this information is great to know, it's largely irrelevant. A new Killer Instinct announcement would be great after some time passes and Microsoft realizes how many fans are itching for a new game in the series.
Perhaps the Anniversary Edition is a social experiment; A litmus test to see if players can "put their money where their mouths are." Hopefully, the success of Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition can encourage Iron Galaxy to make another game or at the very least convince Microsoft to port the classic games on PC, please?
Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition is now available on Steam, Microsoft Store, and Xbox One. The regular Killer Instinct is now a "free-to-play" mode with a rotating roster of free characters.