Game entry

Killer Instinct

1994 · Fighting · Arcade · Midway

Killer Instinct is ranked no. 1,312 among the best video games of all time by GameForever voters, with an ELO score of 1,540 and 48% of duels won.

World rank

no. 1,312

ELO score

1,540

Wins

48%

Duels played

75

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About Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct is a fighting game developed by Rare and published by Midway and Nintendo. It was released as an arcade game in the fall of 1994 and, the following year, ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Game Boy. The game's plot involves an all-powerful corporation organising a fighting tournament. The story was adapted in a limited comic book series published under the short-lived Acclaim Comics imprint.

Killer Instinct features several gameplay elements unique to fighting games of the time. Instead of fighting enemies in best-of-three rounds bouts, each player has two life bars. The player that depletes the other player's life bars first wins the match. The game also introduced "auto-doubles", a feature which allows players to press a certain sequence of buttons to make characters automatically perform combos on opponents. Also featured in the game are "combo breakers", special defensive moves that can interrupt combos.