Killer Instinct

This is my first Xbox One game review and a good one at best. This game right here was one of my reasons for even considering an Xbox One in the first place. Seriously, Killer Instinct is about as good as it was many years ago on arcades, the Super Nintendo, even on the Nintendo 64. Though not developed by Rare, it still stays true to what made Killer Instinct so great. For a developer that made pretty bad games like GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, even one of those Silent Hill games, I had to admit that I had doubts but they really came through with this game. Ken Lobb who was the original creator had some involvement, the voice announcers from the old games came back as well, the music is funky and fresh as it was before, honestly, this is a fantastic game all around. Granted, there aren't all the favorite KI characters like Combo, Riptor or even Cinder, but we have some of the other favorites like Jago, Orchid, Chief Thunder, Spinal, a brand new character named Sadira, Sabrewulf, even Glacius and now we even got Fulgore (post-patch). There's a free-to-play version which only has Jago (or Sabrewulf) as a playable character but there's also the Combo Edition and the Ultra Edition which has the classic costumes, all the characters (the ones so far anyway), even the classic Killer Instinct arcade game. Killer Instinct has a very well-balanced fighting system and some pretty unique mechanics. I could go on and on about that alone but I'd rather not. Playing the game, you can actually perform a C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER and even Bluff Cancel which is basically you stopping a combo while the opposing player attempts to break it but backfires and you keep the combo going. There's also Instinct mode which is different for every character. Shadow moves are the equivalent of EX moves in Street Fighter IV in the sense that you use two punch or two kick buttons plus the direction input to do a move. Actually, it's very similar to Street Fighter just in the sense that there's the dragon punch motion (or shoruyken), fireball and spinning kick motions plus the button to perform a special move. I like that actually. Also, just like past Killer Instincts, you could perform ultra combos in the end of the second round. Only thing is that now you have the option of keeping the combo going even after cancelling the first ultra combo but it only works if you have a full Instinct Meter. There's a Dojo mode which will take you through the fundamentals of the game. Movements, attacks, special moves, how to do combos, how to break combos, how to counter break, how to do juggle combos, all that. Combos in Killer Instinct are not very hard to do. It's not like Street Fighter or even Marvel vs Capcom where high-skilled players could perform infinite loops or do more than 50 hit combos. Anybody can perform 30 plus hit combos in a game like this. The characters obviously have new designs and some I like, others I needed to get used to it. However, with the Ultra Edition, you could get the classic costumes for Jago, Orchid, Thunder, even Sabrewulf. Hopefully we get more characters, even new game modes since Iron Galaxy has signed on to work on Killer Instinct since Double Helix is pretty much done with it after the Fulgore/arcade mode update. This game right here is a fantastic fighting game and though it's kind of a learning curve for people who don't really play fighters, it's a game you really shouldn't miss. It's a digital-only purchase but I'm glad I got it. Oh and the online is pretty well-done. Hopefully it'll be even better since Iron Galaxy did pretty well with Capcom's fighters like Street Fighter III Third Strike, Marvel vs Capcom Origins, even that Darkstalkers game. Killer Instinct is as good today as it was back then and then some.