Killer Instinct

An excellent tutorial partially makes up for the tiny roster. [Feb 2014, p.68]

The breaker system and surprisingly freeform combo mechanics offer some depth/longevity, plus it’s amusing enough for button-mashers too.

It's a slender offering, even if you pay up, but Killer Instinct is full of potential. [Jan 2014, p.62]

The spirit of Killer Instinct remains sometimes painfully true to its roots, but Double Helix has competently filled the gaps in the original's foundation. They've also laid new groundwork to teach players how fighting games actually work.

Double Helix Games had to do something big for this brand new Killer Instinct, something that sticks with the codes of today's fighting games. They took a lot to Street Fighter, it's not genius, but you can feel the balance between old stuffs and new ones. It's fast and explosive but Killer Instinct hits far too hard in the wallet.

One of the most brutal fighting game is finally back on Xbox One. Killer Instinct is here with its latest installment, next gen visuals and the well-known ultra combo addicting style.

I'd go as far as to say that Killer Instinct is my favourite launch title for Xbox One. With a little more content, it could seriously have been a killer app for the system. It might be only half a game so far, but what an excellent half that is.

If only there were more of it across more characters that had a story, Killer Instinct would be gold. But as it stands, it’s not yet living up to the potential the series has.

The dojo is amazing. All fighting games from now on need to step up.

An excellent reboot of an unfairly forgotten fighter, but the way it’s being sold does it no favours and severally restricts the fun to be had online.

Killer Instinct still has it, no doubt about it. On the other hand, six or eight characters respectively is an almost shamefully small amount of content. This is not a debut, but the third game in a series that only brings one new character to the table. So to me, this is clearly a game of two sides, as it even stays pretty basic when it comes to game modes. Still, I do like what's there, but even at those 20 bucks it's a bit meager, especially compared to everything else that came out on current gen in recent years.

At launch, Killer Instinct serves as a solid foundation for what could eventually become a good fighting game. More characters and stages are coming down the line, but at launch, the game's limited single and multiplayer modes are glaring and will grow stale quickly.

The reboot of Killer Instinct is pure gameplay with a well-crafted combat system. The rock solid 60 fps action is fun as hell for those who will try to master the shiny gameplay. Sadly, the lack of content is a big issue and six characters are simply not enough.

As a modern fighting game, it manages to hold its own against more seasoned stablemates, thanks to its accessibility and hidden depths.

Are you one of those still waiting for a new version of Killer Instinct after 20 years? Xbox One will give you the opportunity to play a great Killer Instinct edition: fast, furious, and full of brutal combos like you hoped it to be. Anyway, the free to play formula will ask you for too much money if you consider buying any single “Round” Microsoft releases, and if you focus on details. Instead of focusing on the violently fast gameplay, you’ll see some poor animations, imprecise hit-box and frequently buggy graphics.

There’s a fantastic combo system at Killer Instinct’s core, but right now it feels like half a game – one full of promise, certainly, but not an especially next-gen one either. The cascade of particles may not be enough to retain player interest until the rest of the game arrives.

Killer Instinct is definitely fun, if a bit lacking in depth. The lack of campaign mode and limited character options mean it won't take long for you to breeze through the entirety of the content offering, but the online versus should ensure that you get plenty of enjoyment for your investment.

Despite the interesting combo system, Killer Instinct offers too little at the moment. There isn't enough of anything, let alone characters, even though it is a blast from the past to rediscover those. If Killer Instinct ever gets 'more', it might find its way back to the top of the fighting game ranks.

A lack of modes and content makes Killer Instinct mostly a glorified demo. The promised extra content could change this, but that Killer Instinct turns out to be a boring fighting game is harder to fix.

While I’m still not a fan of Killer Instinct’s dial-a-combo mentality nor its eclectic cast of characters, Double Helix’s efforts to bring the series back from the dead are commendable—and while some mistakes were made along the way, this is probably the most interesting and enjoyable the franchise has ever been.

Killer Instinct is a fun fighting game, and its free-to-play approach will certainly be successful. But make no mistake: it will never have the depth of this genre's leaders.

While undoubtedly the lightnight fast combo-orgy-brawling shows potential, the price politics and technical glitches make sure that this is little more than a beat-em-up snack.

There’s plenty of depth to the mechanics here for those that want to sink their teeth into a new fighting system, and there are some informed nods back to the franchise’s roots, but if you were intending to buy an Xbox One on the promise of playing this until you could afford another launch game, chances are you’ll get bored of it by the end of launch week.

As much as Killer Instinct is a sound and inviting fighter mid-battle, it's an experience that ultimately feels hollow everywhere else. Online play – as spare as it is – may present a limitless well of competition to draw from, but with only six fighters to master and very few modes of play, Killer Instinct lacks the value and staying power offered by most other modern fighting games.