#doomseye

Watchdogs of the ARK

Shadow rebels against the infamous Black Arms by choosing to serve as the lone protector of the Space Colony ARK. One day, a fugitive accidentally teleports himself onto Shadow's territory. Lost and rejected, this unique former-mercenary captivates Shadow, inclining him to spare the villain's life. Ⓜ Read here...

I...am a fighting game junkie. I love games where two characters, or two teams of characters do nothing but beat the hell out of each other for vaguely defined reasons. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, King of Fighters, Blazblue, Guilty Gear, I may not be good at most of them, but I love playing them, and I love watching Tournaments.

And in my opinion, Killer Instinct is the king of them all. In all terms, off the wall roster? Hell yeah. Werewolves, Skeletons (breaking Nintendo's long tabboo on playable undead), robots, dinosaurs, everything is fair game for KI. Easily watchable? Oh definitely. KI may not be the most well-designed fighting game of it's time, but it was fast, frantic, and a treat for the eyes to watch back on the SNES and N64. Graphics? KI had the greatest graphics of it's day, and used every ounce of horsepower in any system it was on.

For more than a decade, people assumed the franchise dead in the Microsoft buyout of Rare. Little did we know just what was brewing at E3 2013.

And rest assured, ladies and gentledoods, this is how I reacted:

That was the exact face, right there, that my brother and I made as we watched this trailer.

Now, there were some downsides to this announcement. For one thing, it was exclusively on XBox One, the one system I was adamant on not getting due to the restrictions involved. Granted they've removed a lot of those, but I still haven't got an Xbox One because real life happened.

For another, the cost, to most. The game was (and mostly still is) coming out in an episodic format. Every month, a new character is revealed (and the next one teased) And a lot of people were complaining "DOOD YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR EVERY CHARACTER" this is simply not true.

While it is true you CAN pay for only the characters you like, it's far from the only option. You can buy all the characters from Season One and Season Two for 40 bucks each. Not the greatest price tag I know, but it's for more reasonable than is first assumed. And heck, that's just if you want all the schwag and KI1 and KI1. In reality, I think you can get the Combo Breaker pack for 20 dollars each, which is a lot more reasonable, although you do get new characters a bit later. So, let's break down what I think about the new Killer Instinct, shall we?

NEW CHARACTER DESIGNS

It's obviously not 1994 anymore, so obviously a lot of characters needed a facelift, ESPECIALLY Chief Thunder. Sorry guys, but the feather mohawk and Jago's ripped shirt had to go, to say nothing of Orchid's fanservice.

On the whole, I am VERY satisfied with the redesigns of characters. My absolute favorite has to be Spinal. Some accessories turned his bare bones old design into something amazing and dark and Cthulhu-esque, honestly. His design is in my tops. And if you don't like the new designs, the game also has 'Retro' costumes for many old fighters, like Jago and Orchid, and Spinal is back to being barebones.

Of the 'Retro' costumes, my favorite will have to be Glacius. The difference between his old and new designs is so glaring and both of them look amazing, it's hard to choose.

My least favorite redesign for a new character will have to be TJ Combo. I don't know, It just doesn't click for me. It's not turning him into an MMA fighter, since he's always had kicks, although he used them rarely. I think it's the too hard-eged face and the stereotypical tough black guy goatee. I'd honestly like to see him clean-shaven and looking just a tad softer. Right now he just looks too much like every other black guy in videogames and movies and what have you.

NEW CHARACTERS

There are new characters in KI as well. I've noticed that there's some hate for these characters. Characters like Sadira, the crazy jumping spider-woman, Kan-Ra, the dark babylonian sorcerer, Omen, the herald of main KI2 villain Gargos, and Aganos, the giant stone golem. Many people seem to think that these characters 'don't belong' in KI.

I'm sorry, but where did you come to that conclusion? KI's universe is so ill-defined you can have whatever you want in there and be cool. Killbots? Sure. Ninja monks? Fine. Skeleton Pirates, Ice Aliens, Doods on fire, Werewolves, and genetically-engineered raptor-women? (Yes Riptor is female) It's all gravy.

I don't think that adding in a ghost, a dark magician, and a monstrously huge golem dude are all that out there.

My favorite new character so far is Kan-Ra, just because he's the most hammy, overacting guy in the whole cast and that's what I'm into. Aganos doesn't talk, Omen is pretty hammy, but he doesn't overact, and the ghost girl, we haven't seen much of and she creeps me out.

SOUND DESIGN

KI has always been known for it's killer tunes, to the point that the original game on the SNES even came with a Soundtrack famously known as Killer Cuts.

Luckily the new KI is no slouch in this department, with Mick Gordon returning to write some epic tunes, each character has their own style such as techno, classical violins, hell, Spinal's tune has an opening horn from a kangling, a tibetan instrument carved from a HUMAN FEMUR. Dang son.

THE MECHANICS

The original KI had some weird stuff, certain characters (*COUGHCINDERCOUGH*) were way too overpowered, and KI2 was bogged down with useless mechanics.

The KI on Xbox One seems much more geared towards competitive play. Combos are simple, but you can end them in different ways to have different effects. Such as getting more meter, getting more damage, or splatting an opponent into the wall to do something else with them. Every character also has a unique combo trait, from Jago's Round the World (For example, comboing from Light Kick, to Medium Kick, to Heavy Kick, and then back), to Sabrewulf's autodoubles (IE: Rapidly mashing one button). Instinct modes, each unique to the character that's using it, add some depth, and you can pull off some insane stuff with them.

You can also bait Combo Breakers, to perform Counter Breakers and interrupt an enemy's attempt to combo break you to rack up INSANE combos and damage.

The FGC community and casuals alike seem to have embraced these additions and tweaks, and KI views in tourneys are consistently high.

THE WEIGH-IN

Was there any doubt that I would think this KI is good? Not only is it KI, but it's beautiful. The graphics are amazing and really show off the Xbox One's capability, and it provides a great competitor to Street Fighter 5 being only on PS4, which is crazy to consider.

Overall, I wish I owned the new KI. The new characters don't bother me, although I wish they'd go less supernatural and a bit more technological. Maybe a mixture of the two. Season 2 was branded as "The Rise of Ultratech", but we've barely seen anything FROM Ultratech except for Riptor. And this is meant to be the biggest threat in this series' world. Sure, we'll be getting Cinder later, but is he and Riptor really enough to brand the season the "Ultratech" season? Honestly, Kan-Ra, Maya, and Aganos' relationship seems more interesting.

But I digress. I enjoy the game. I enjoy watching it and on the few occasions I've been able to I've enjoyed playing it, and I crave more every time I see it.

My dad has been urging me to post this for years, so I'm going to do it right here, and right now.

I'm going to start designing a video game. But I never had the kajones to do it. But now I am.

I'd like to introduce you to Massive Multiplayer Game Design! A place where the readers can make the game AS IT'S BEING MADE! I'm extremely proud of the work I did on this, and I hope I can get a lot of people buzzing!