First Impressions: Killer Instinct (PC / Windows 10)

Earlier this week, Killer Instinct became available through the Windows App Store to be downloaded for free, exclusively for people who use the Windows 10 operating system.  Presently I've put a couple of hours into the game (although I've only spent 20 minutes in 15 actual fights; I've won 14 of those and the game's currently on "Beginner") and I feel like I can talk a bit about the game, or at least my impressions of it.  Eh!?

Wait!?  Really!?  This game is rated T for Teen?

When I first saw that Killer Instinct had become available on PC, I went to the Windows App Store and searched for the game, the main thing, and only thing that confused me was the "XBox Live" banner above the game icon.  Not being one who has a current generation console, I wasn't sure if that meant that this game was only compatible with XBox One consoles, if I needed an XBox Live subscription.  Then I told the old curmudgeon man in me to go drink his Metamucil since right there on the page it says that it's "Built for Windows 10" and "Is your PC Killer Instinct ready?" So obviously the game would work well enough on my computer.  So, I clicked the download button (labeled as "Free+") and began the 23 GB download that Windows 10 would soon recognize as Killer Instinct.

When I first started the game, I was greeted with a few company logos, (Microsoft Studios, and Iron Galaxy), and then with the iconic music that Robin Beanland wrote for the original 1994 arcade and SNES release (titled "The Instinct").  This was a good sign.  Then the game went to the "Checking Downloadable Content" screen.  It stayed this way for well over 10 minutes and at first I just chalked it up to a Day One patch.  An additional 10 minutes later, I decided that I had had enough and I closed the game down.  Perhaps my computer wasn't actually capable of running the game, although I had read that the game ran a benchmark test when you started it up for the first time.  Upon rebooting the game, I was again greeted with the Checking Downloadable Content screen, but this time for only a few seconds before I was given the start screen.

Then I started to play the game.

As it turns out, this free version of Killer Instinct (a fact which I knew before downloading, so it wasn't a surprise) only allows you to play as Saberwulf, which I was fine with as I did like the character when I played on the SNES, although I do favor Jago pretty heavily in both the arcade cabinet and the SNES game, but Saberwulf is a close second.  I mean, his stage music ("Tooth and Claw") is some of the best fighting game music out there.  One note on the music though, is that I don't really notice the music while I've played.  This aspect of the game makes me a little sad since I love the soundtrack from the original game.  Maybe I just need to play the game with a greater focus on paying attention to the music, but at the moment, I couldn't tell you anything about what the music is like during the actual fighting, which comprises 85% of the game.  

Maybe I'm old, but that seems like a lot of blood for a T Rating.

So basically, I was okay being relegated to only playing as Saberwulf.  Except that you are able to play as Jago too.  But only in the "Dojo" tutorial stages.  Which is kind of odd.  In the Dojo, you learn the basics of playing Killer Instinct and the basics really only last for a handful of tutorials before it starts getting complicated when you have to perform a Heavy Opener followed by a Heavy Auto, followed by a Medium Linker, followed by another Heavy Auto and finishing it all up with an Ender.  Granted leading up to this, the game will give you on screen directions as to how to perform a specific move, and then just like school, the training wheels come off and they just tell you to perform a move without the cheat sheet, which I fully acknowledge is a good thing.

What I find annoying, and maybe it's a marketing tactic (and if so then it's a good one), is that while in the Dojo, you learn a lot of Jago's moves, which are pretty typical for a Jago/Ryu-esque-type fighter in a street fighting game with Down->Down/Left->Left performs a fireball and Right->Down->Down/Right doing an uppercut.  But not all of Jago's move translate to Saberwulf as he doesn't have (at least not that I've found through experimentation) a fireball attack, although he does have a charging attack that I haven't quite figured out how to implement properly yet.

The rest of my time has been spent in either the survival mode (lose once and your session is over) and once through of the arcade mode to which I lost once to Maya, and then beat B. Orchid.  One thing that I've noticed, is that this iteration of Killer Instinct is very forgiving when it comes to performing combos as well as executing Combo Breakers.  I guarantee you that in the original Killer Instinct, I never would have been able to pull of a 29 (which turned into a 32) hit combo, let alone having a 12 in-a-row winning streak (even on the Game Boy port, I'd be lucky to beat the game on easy).  And I just realized that all of this is because I have "Combo Assist" turned on (which it is by default), so I'll have to give the game a go with this function turned off; I will report back later.  Combo Breakers can easily be performed on the Xbox 360 controller by pressing either up, right, or down (up=Heavy, right=medium, down=light) to perform the corresponding Combo Breaker, but if you get it wrong the second time you try to break the combo, you're locked out from trying to execute it again and you're given a visual timer while your proverbial crap is kicked from your digital person (or in my case, wulf).

So how does one go about acquiring additional fighters?  I believe the only way to do this is to buy them, but I could be mistaken.  There are a couple of cameo fighters (Rash from Battletoads, and (the?) Arbiter from Halo are two that I recognize) with Rash having a countdown timer until he is "Available," which either means he will then be a free to access/play character or he will then be available to purchase.

This area of free-to-play games is where I have conflicting feelings.  I most likely will not be buying individual fighters (costing $4.99 a piece) or by buying one of the full priced bundles which include anywhere from 8 or 17 up to 25 fighters, along with KI coins (which unlock character art, backgrounds, music, etc), for between $19.99 up to $49.99.  My feelings are conflicted here because since the game was free, I don't want to spend money on it, because it is in essence, free.  I can already play the game, albeit, a limited version of the game.  I blame free smart phone games in this respect.  Plants Vs. Zombies2: It's About Time has been the only game over my four years of smartphonedome that I've spent any real world money on (and that was only $2.99 for the Snow Pea).  Maybe if there's a sale (a Steam-esque level sale mind you) will I decide to throw money at the developers/studio/intertubalwebbedcloud, but until then, I've resigned myself to playing only as Saberwulf, which again I am perfectly fine with.

[. . .sounds of chirping crickets maybe. . .]

There are a number of aspects and features of this game that I know that I haven't covered (the Shadow Lab, Online Play, Multiplayer?, Experience Points, Shadow Moves/Meter, Finishing Moves), mainly because I haven't delved into those depths, but also I feel that I've been going on for quite a bit already.  I will say though that one part of the game that I've noticed possibly something not working quite right is that during the character animation intros, there often seems to be sound missing.  When Saberwulf comes on screen, he'll growl, then stand up and apparently roar (as above), but there is no sound effect.  There's the ambient background sound and some intro music, but nothing from Saberwulf.  I don't know if this is an oversight or something that will eventually be patched.

Basically, if you happen to be looking for a fighting game and you have a spare 23 GB on your hard drive, I would recommend picking up Killer Instinct to at least give it a try.  If you're not happy with it, uninstalling should be a simple enough endeavor, although I don't see myself doing this any time soon as I am very much enjoying my time with Killer Instinct.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Here Be Monsters

P.S.  And lastly, here's a picture of Saberwulf bitch-slapping Riptor, if only because Dr. Potts will typically beat me at Killer Instinct, especially when he's playing as Riptor.