Killer Instinct
1995 · Fighting · SNES
Overview
Killer Instinct (1995) on the SNES is Rare's conversion of its arcade fighter, with combo breakers and Ultra combos, sold on a black cartridge and over 3 million copies.
Deep Dive
Fighters chain long combos, which the defender can interrupt with a combo breaker, and finish with Ultra combos of 20 hits or more. The SNES version shrank the pre-rendered sprites, turned the 3D panning stages into 2D, and replaced most victory videos with stills, but added training and tournament modes.
Developer Story
Rare released the arcade game with Midway in 1994, using pre-rendered graphics and a hard disk. Steve Patrick programmed the SNES version, which Nintendo published in August 1995.
Did You Know?
- The first 100,000 US copies came with Killer Cuts, an arranged soundtrack CD.
- It sold more than 150,000 copies in the US on its first day.
Sources & further reading
- Killer Instinct (1994 video game) — Wikipedia
