Game needing a sequel: Killer Instinct
Original game format: Arcade/SNES
Why it needs a sequel: Put simply, Killer Instinct walked straight intothe over-crowded ‘90s fighting game genre and unapologetically gave it a stout kick up the arse. And a punch in the face. And a disembowelling. It also turned its head into a machine gun, blasted the living shit out of it, and rounded it all off by doing some really camp ‘80s-style dancing. It was that kind of game.
Killer Instinct aimed tobe the unashamedly OTT last word in 2D beat ‘em ups. Street Fighter II had combos? Killer Instinct had 48 hit combos. Mortal Kombat had fatalities? Killer Instinct had the most gloriously, hilariously excessive and surreal murder methods out there. KI took everything everyone else did and expanded it to a ridiculous degree, and executed the whole thing with the kind of thoroughly silly British sense of humour we don’t see enough of in games these days.
What we want from a sequel: A KI sequel should take advantage of modern technology and make the move into full 3D now that we can make polygon models look as smooth as the orginal game’s rendered sprites. It should add a few of the trappings of 3D fighters in the shape of side-step evades and maybe some Soul Calibur-style free movement to add a bit more cat-and-mouse tactical depth to setting off those monster combos, but other than that it just needs to be a cranked up version of the KI we know and love.
Fighters have got too serious over recent years. KI proved that the genre doesn’t have to be all about nanosecond timing and cat-like reflexes to be fun, and it did it with a remarkable amount of style too. All we really want from its resurgence is a modernised and streamlined version of the glorious old KI nonsense with some bigger combos (100+ hits this time please?) and a bit more flexibility. Oh, and could we go back to the KI1 art style please? The character designs in KI2 looked like the result of heavy drinking during pregnancy.
