Killer Instinct 2

Killer Instinct 2 (commonly abbreviated KI2) is a 1996 arcade-only fighting game developed by Rare Ltd., licenced by Nintendo, and manufactured by Midway. KI2 is the sequel to Killer Instinct (1994), an arcade game which was also ported to the SNES. Like its predecessor, the game features two 8-way joysticks with six buttons each for attacks (three punch and three kick), allowing for both a single player mode or a two player versus mode. KI2 was ported to the Nintendo 64 as Killer Instinct Gold in 1997, but this version lacked some animation frames and all of the FMV from the arcade game.

Story

KI2 follows on from the plot line that the previous installment ended with. Eyedol's death at the hands of Orchid accidentally sets off a time warp, transporting some of the combatants back in time and allowing the Demon Lord Gargos to escape from Limbo. Now, trapped 2000 years in the past, the warriors that survived Killer Instinct, along with several new faces, fight for the right to face Gargos in combat. Each character that survived the journey from the first game has a corresponding background story, while new characters on this installment are native inhabitants of this past time period. Some fighters, like T.J. Combo who survives from the original, just want to get home. Others, like new character Tusk, want to bring an end to Gargos and his reign of evil. This time there is no tournament or prize money, just a fight to the finish with the fate of the future hanging in the balance.

Hardware

A factory direct KI2 cabinet features Orchid on both sides and predominently a black and red flame-style color scheme. Original KI boards can be upgraded to KI2 by replacing the sound EEPROMS and the Hard drive note: a special connector between the PCB and the Hard Drive is required, Midway used a different HDD access method to prevent piracy or cloned drives, if such connector is not installed, the drive gets corrupted, KI->KI2 conversion kits were available along with KI2 dedicated boards (KI2 boards do not require the connector since it´s built-in and can not be downgraded to play KI). KI2 presents a more detailed background than KI due to the improvement of pre-rendered graphics technology originally developed by Rare associated with SGI. The Main CPU is a R4600 RISC processor and uses DCS (Digital Compression System ) samples for sound.

Gameplay

As with most fighting games, two characters square off to combat with a life bar measuring their respective health. When one player's life bar is depeated the round is deemed over, but unlike other fighting games at the beginning of the next round the "winning" player's life bar remains at the level it was at the end of the previous round and the depleted/losing player starts with a full bar. The winner of the match is the first to win two rounds (to deplete your opponents life bar completely twice).

As popular as its predecessor was this next installment, in addition to praise, was criticized for its more liberal combo engine which changed the dynamics of the game considerably. Instead of having a pre-defined number of combo possibilities (based on openers, links, and enders as the first game), this game tracked which combo enders (or closing moves) you performed. As you used more enders they progressively performed caused more attacks. Combo breakers were much easier to perform (33% odds up to 50%), and Ultra Combos were breakable as well as long as the attacked player still had energy remaining. Throws were both a standalone, and combo extender/juggle initiator. Parry, an advanced new addition, allow an open counter-attack after a successful parry block. A player can assume a defensive position (from either a high or low attack) and cause the attacker to temporarily freeze if the parry is successfully. From an analytical point of view, this balanced the game out significantly, forcing both attacker and defender to use more skill and calculation during confrontations. Having nothing "invincible" meant that the attacker could not rest on their laurels when an Ultra Combo was executed, lest a Super Combo Breaker executed, and they suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of a counter attack. The balance of gameplay is completely ignored when playing against AI; AI-controlled player´s don´t follow these rules as law. This can make the game frustating for both novice and advanced players, although the handicap isn´t as unbalanced as in the first Killer Instinct. New combat additions to this sequel also include:

Power bar: A bar located directly below the health/life bar increases when the enemy blocks the attacks, or when player is being hit, it has 2 levels. Super specials, Super linkers and Super finishers require a certain level of power to work.
Combo breaker adjustment: Now can be performed only using the opposite move type than the enemy is using, ie, if you opponent begins his attack with PUNCH, you must input the breaker secuence with KICK, and viceversa. In the previous game, combo breakers were static and performed with a predetermined button not dependent on the opponents attack.
Auto-double: as its predecesor, 2 free hits after a special or jumping attack, but now you have the freedom to perform them after ANY attack ex: If you attack your enemy with a jumping Strong kick.
Manual-double: A new technique where you press two combinations of buttons sequentially (HP and MK or HK and MP) separately. It acts like an auto-double, but the window for being broken is much smaller. These can be done after any opener, linker or auto-double, which can greatly expand your combo hitcount.
Pressure moves: All characters have at least 1 of these moves, which is performed pressing FWD or BCK + a button depending on the character. this move can be linked before or after a special attack, or performed alone. ex: Jago´s double kick = hold FWD + High Kick, Combo = hold FWD + High Kick
Linkers: After succefully connected an auto-double, the player can either finish his combo or extend it using a linker move. Linker moves don´t knock down the opponent and must be followed by another auto-double to work. There also Special Linkers that require some of the power bar but connect more than 1 hit.
Combo Ender/Finisher: any Super move or "non-linker" Special move can be used to finish the combo.
Ultra combo: A maneuver that must be performed during a combo and when the opponent has less than 1/5 of life remaining in the final round. If successful, the attacker will connect at least 15 hits automatically and finish the match. The length of the Ultra combo will be longer if more individual enders were performed during the course of the match (four regular enders plus a fifth "super" ender per character).
Ultimate combo: Similar to an Ultra combo in its required timing in a match, but instead of performing a series of hits the attacker finishes his opponent with a special move. Each character has a different Ultimate move that follows their theme.

List of Characters

Characters returning from the first game

Fulgore: A new, enhanced cyborg created after the first Fulgore was destroyed by Jago in the first tournament. His current goal is the destruction of Jago.
Jago: Succeeded in destroying Fulgore in the first tournament after being possessed by the Tiger Spirit. He was soon betrayed by the Tiger Spirit which turned out to be the demon Gargos in disguise. Gargos used Jago to gain entrance to the physical world. Jago seeks revenge against Gargos's manipulation.
Spinal: Spinal was destroyed by Chief Thunder in the first tournament. Gargos resurrects and commands Spinal's past remains. Spinal now fights for vengeance and for his freedom.
T.J. Combo: After beating Riptor in the first tournament, T.J. Combo was sent into the past when attempting to destroy the Ultratech building. Now he simply fights to get home.
Glacius: The original Glacius defeated Cinder and returned home. A distant relative of Glacius 2,000 years in the past heeds a distress call and comes to Earth. His objective is to find his lost brethren and return home.
Sabrewulf: Captured by Ultratech in the first tournament. Has been driven mad by experimentation from Ultratech. With cybernetic arms and being 2,000 years in the past, Sabrewulf desperately seeks a cure for his lycanthropy.
B. Orchid: Orchid destroyed Eyedol in the first tournament which subsequently sent the Ultratech building two millennia into the past. Now Orchid seeks to destroy Gargos and to find a way home.

New characters

Maya - An Amazonian warrior that previously banished Gargos. Maya was banished by her people when Gargos reappeared. Her goal is to destroy Gargos once and for all to regain her former standing.
Tusk - A barbarian that seeks to fight all of the challengers before he believes he will have the right to fight and destroy Gargos.
Kim Wu - An eastern martial artist that is a descendant of the people who previously drove off Eyedol and Gargos. To protect her people, she seeks to destroy Gargos.
Gargos - A demon lord that has returned to the physical world. Resembles a huge gargoyle that is very powerful and can also breathe fire.

Bugs, notes & Trivia

Orchid´s default costume is green, this applies for both FMVs and portraits, which are not affected by color palettes, but in the selection screen, the black costume is always selected by default.
The special moves of Gargos (the final boss) are taken almost directly from characters featured in the first but not the second game. His fire-breath is similar in function to Cinders attacks and he shoots projectiles from the air similarly to Riptor. He can also heal himself like Eyedol, but more efficiently.
Whereas all characters could shoot projectiles in the last game, in this one the character's special-moves are more consistent.
For some reason if a player passes the character he is about to face on the character selection screen or ends up in a "mirror match" all characters he faces from that point on (including Gargos) will have alternative colour-schemes.
Since the characters are 2-dimensional sprites they are programmed to always face the camera. This causes the characters to be placed in odd positions whenever the camera moves out of the regular axis (such as when a character is thrown down from Jago's bridge).
With the exception of some brief exclamations and move names, characters in KI2 rarely speak, if at all.
Projectiles can raise the "movecontact" flag even from far away, the player will interrupt the current animation if a pressure move in executed when the projectile hits, this flaw also happens when the player juggles the opponent with a pressure move and inputs the ULTRA secuence: the "air ULTRA combo".
With practice, the player can pull a "Retaliation" move or Breaker move after his/her lifebar has been depleted, however, after connecting, the engine checks the life variable (which is 0) and sends the player into "death" animation.
Due to a glitch in the game engine, if the player manages to input the breaker secuence in the 1st or 2nd hit prior an ULTRA combo, both characters will end up binded, the "breaker" flag will remain on for said player and it will be able to hit the opponent indefinitely
There are no draws in KI2. In versus matches, both characters lose, while in story mode, the player always loses.

Killer Instinct Gold

Killer Instinct Gold is the Nintendo 64 version of Killer Instinct 2. It was released shortly after the launch of the console. Story wise, KI2 and KI Gold are the same, the differences between them are that there are more options in Gold, such as the ability to fight in Team Battles, in which one can fight with up to 11 characters; Team Elimination Battles, in which one has to finish their opponents off with Fatals (finishing moves similar to Mortal Kombat's Fatalities) instead of simply depleting their life bar with normal moves; and Training and Advanced Training, in which the player can learn the moves of the character they have chosen. KI Gold is compatible with the Nintendo 64's Controller Pak to save options and high scores, though the cartridge also includes battery save.

However, unlike the arcade version, this home port had most of its FMV scenes and several frames of character animation removed, due to hardware limitations of the Nintendo 64. Since this system was cartridge-based, and full-screen FMVs can take up hundreds of megabytes of space, still frames had to be the replacement.