Killer Instinct – Awesomeness in Character Design

November 26th, 2007

Although it might be remembered for its over the top combos rather than its interesting character design, the way I see it, Killer Instinct was years ahead of every other fighter in terms of character design.

The Killer Instinct characters were very unique for their time. Espcially how a lot of fighting games were borrowing heavily from the Street Fighter II model with their stereotypical ethnic based character set. Of course there were also plenty of 2D fighters with a cast full of ‘freaks’. But again these were somewhat stereotyical and never up to the quality of design as KI. The excellent digitized sprites and (in the arcade) 2.5D graphics put KI ahead in its class.

What I’ll do now is post up some of my favourite renders from Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct Gold(II) to show you what I mean. Keep in mind that most of these renders harken back to the SNES and Arcade days, so they are a little weak on textures.

fulgore and jago killer instinct render