Released: 19961125 Publisher: Nintendo of America Developer: Rare Genre: Fighting

Review by: Viper

One of the first fighting games introduced to the system. Not yet making the jump to 3d, Rare uses their excellent rendered 2d animations to bring home the high speed arcade great, Killer Instinct 2. For some reason the title was changed from KI2 to KI Gold for the N64 release, but everything else remains the same down to the brilliant projectile effects. If you ever played Killer Instinct on the Super NES, you will notice that almost all the same characters made a return to the N64 version. Then again, you'll also notice that some characters were replaced with new. The quick ninja Jago, well rounded B. Orchid, powerful boxer TJ Combo, ever-aging Spinal, icy cold alien Glacius, cybernetic creation Fulgore, and the man turned wolf Sabrewulf, all return. With the loss of Cinder, Chief Thunder, and Riptor; Maya, Tusk, and Kim Wu are gained.

Just about identical to the arcade version. The only difference is the lack of pre-rendered cinematics and the character animations aren't quite as smooth. The backgrounds are simply eye candy, especially the Fulgore stage. All backgrounds are 3d rendered and look good whether the camera is zoomed in or panned out during fireball wars. Characters are rendered, 2d sprites but run fairly smooth even though the N64 isn't decided to handle sprites as well as polygons. The projectile effects are near arcade quality with their bright colors and explosions into many sparks.

Many people will criticize or appraise Killer Instinct's style of play. I personally am a fan of the fast paced lengthy combos. Killer Instinct Gold is very fast even on the normal speed setting with no special options turned on. Once you beat Gargos on every skill level new options will become available to you. Put the game on ludicrous speed (from Space Balls), with powered finishers and a full power bar, and watch the game speed by. Amazingly the N64 still handles all the graphic capabilities with a good framerate even at these high speeds. The actual fighting system of Killer Instinct differs from any other fighting game on the market. (This is what gamers have grown to love or hate as the case may be) The idea of using autodoubles (quick button press after a move to get a "free" hit) causes some long and fast combos. The variety of combos is endless, some will include super linkers, shadow moves, slow downs and speed ups, along with a plethora of linkers and finishers. On the defensive end you can counter a move before a combo is started or attempt to break the combo midway through. Rare's fighter offers an arcade style of play, along with a tournament mode, and a team mode. For honing in on your skills you can train with the KI master, and copy what he shows you, or pit yourself against a non-attacking computer that never dies in the practice mode. Looking on the other side of the debate, many players dislike KI because of the ability of a mediocre player to be able to pull off long combos by just tapping buttons.

Rare is known for making their games eye appealing as well as ear appealing. The original Killer Instinct for the SNES came with a CD that had tracks from the game. Now on the N64 a lot of the background music is very close to being CD quality. Each character has a distinctive voice (Fulgore's is actually made up of pig squeals), although they don't really say much. In a fighting game the music should really be quick paced with a good beat, and KI Gold offers this.

When Killer Instinct first hit the arcades it offered a refreshing new aspect to the fighting genre. With KI2 and KI Gold the same style was brought back with a slightly new combo system, and a much more graphically intense game. With all this true though, many gamers became disappointed with the ultra-unrealistic combos. Nintendo and Rare brought home an arcade classic that keeps the innovative gameplay almost identical. Probably being one of the last 2d fighters available, this one is worth experiencing, unless you hated the arcade.

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