Killer Instinct

 Xbox One
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 656 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 362 out of 656
  2. Mixed: 102 out of 656
  3. Negative: 192 out of 656
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  1. Watty9923
    Apr 6, 2015
    3
    Very disappointed. I am a huge fan of the series but this game didn't do anything special to make it stand out in today's market. The levels look so boring with little to nothing happening. The gameplay is good but it doesn't feel as fun as it used to. Just not enough new here.
  2. dacritic82
    Apr 23, 2015
    3
    You can only give this game a high score if you still live in 1995. It's the perfect example of how companies milk classic games. A shame of a fighting game. It screamed CASH GRAB!!! from the moment I launched it.
  3. Matak98
    Mar 10, 2015
    2
    This game looked like it might have had some potential as a bloody slaughter fest and just all around fun fighting game but was completely wasted. I thought it was gonna be all hype like MK 9 but instead i got a tech demo for a never released Barbie game. I'll give this game a 2/10 because of the incredible music but that's really the only great thing about it. Overall, terrible game play,This game looked like it might have had some potential as a bloody slaughter fest and just all around fun fighting game but was completely wasted. I thought it was gonna be all hype like MK 9 but instead i got a tech demo for a never released Barbie game. I'll give this game a 2/10 because of the incredible music but that's really the only great thing about it. Overall, terrible game play, ugly visuals, and a limited roster of uninspired, generic characters.… Expand
  4. b12arr0
    Nov 25, 2013
    3
    I bought the ultra version of this game before playing it because I had high hopes for it. I have played games like Mortal Kombat before and they were fun. Every time I play KI, I am not having fun. It's forced. I play it because I paid for it and want to get my money's worth not because it's entertaining. That's not good.
  5. bobwe
    Nov 11, 2014
    1
    Disappointing cash grab. Crappy controls, slow or no responses, inconsistent. Bad multiplayer, constant desyncs, quite a lot of lag, 'unable to create multiplayer game please try again'. Boring and/or exploitative characters. Very few interesting game mechanics.

    If you're bored, give it a try but move on quickly.
  6. He_Never_Helps
    Dec 24, 2014
    4
    It's impossible not to compare any 2-d fighting game to the ever expanding library of Arc fighters, and this doesn't stand up. It's not bad, it just lacks...everything that makes Blazblue special. Personality, depth, customization and evolution.

    It's not a 3-d fighter, it just looks like one. it's damn pretty, i'll give you that, but if yer after mechanics alone, yer still better off    It's impossible not to compare any 2-d fighting game to the ever expanding library of Arc fighters, and this doesn't stand up. It's not bad, it just lacks...everything that makes Blazblue special. Personality, depth, customization and evolution.

    It's not a 3-d fighter, it just looks like one. it's damn pretty, i'll give you that, but if yer after mechanics alone, yer still better off with virtua fighter or any Arc fighter.    … Expand
  7. SonicPaul
    Jan 7, 2014
    0
    The game simply mocks series. Transformed from a bloody Veit with fatalities in SF4. This failure is a failure Milcosoft. I as a fan of the first two games of the series never sit down to play this Nintendo of who had to release this game on the Wii U, not you.
  8. gouken2008
    Nov 22, 2013
    3
    Killer Instinct 1 is known because its graphics, music and amazing characters. Despite the fact that this new game has an amazing gameplay and good music, the graphics are disappointing and not really next gen, and the re-imagination of characters are TERRIBLE.

    Plus, NO story mode, NO single player content and NO immersion at all. Microsoft and Double Helix must understand that Fighting    Killer Instinct 1 is known because its graphics, music and amazing characters. Despite the fact that this new game has an amazing gameplay and good music, the graphics are disappointing and not really next gen, and the re-imagination of characters are TERRIBLE.

    Plus, NO story mode, NO single player content and NO immersion at all. Microsoft and Double Helix must understand that Fighting Games does not make money with just competitive content only. Pro players can understand what works for themselves, but casual players that represent the BIG NUMBERS want different things, and this game has none of it.

    The art in general is very SFish, from user interface, trough character's select and, finally, for combos font. There's no need for this, you know? KI has an amazing kind of art and Double Helix didn't grasp it AT ALL.

    I want a TRUE Killer Instinct. Double Helix, just look at what you're doing with STRIDER to understand what I'm talking about. I hope for a season 2 and I'm really convincing my friends to buy this game, but it's for help you to create new contend. For now is just a 3, sorry.    … Expand
  9. richieblac
    Dec 29, 2013
    2
    I'm playing it a lot because I really like fighting games, and it's the only one to really play on my X-Box One. Once a real fighting game like Dead Or Alive hits the XB1 I'm done with this game forever, unless I've gotten good enough that the complaints I'm about to list don't matter.

    1) The "lock out" system is way too harsh and adds unnecessary frustration to an already frustrating    I'm playing it a lot because I really like fighting games, and it's the only one to really play on my X-Box One. Once a real fighting game like Dead Or Alive hits the XB1 I'm done with this game forever, unless I've gotten good enough that the complaints I'm about to list don't matter.

    1) The "lock out" system is way too harsh and adds unnecessary frustration to an already frustrating loss, if you're getting pummeled. If you haven't played the game, a Lock Out happens when you either time a counter wrong, or press for the wrong type of counter counter. Now you can't try to counter again for THREE FULL SECONDS, while the opponent proceeds to destroy you with his combo. They claim this is to "discourage button-mashing".... THREE SECONDS goes way beyond discouraging button-mashing.... It FORCES you to know the game inside and out, or you stand NO CHANCE. I've played too many matches where I can't land a single hit on a moderately better player, because I miss the first counter attempt and then I'm LOCKED OUT FOR THREE SECONDS. Horrible. Just horrible. 1 second? Sure. 3 seconds is way too much guys. The counter system in DOA is ahead of this game by eons, and they would do well to take influence from it.

    2) Finding a match often fails, and you have no warning if it's about to fail.... So you'll sit there for awhile while it just says "Searching..." only to have it fail. We should have information about the game as it loads, so we know if to start the matchmaking over. "Finding player...Player found..." Stuff like that.

    3) The ranking system is complete BS. All that matters is strictly if you win or lose, and how you did with combos/counters. So basically, if you played a REALLY close game against someone with much higher rank than you, you lose as much as if you never got a single blow in. Matches give two lives to each player, but the game doesn't seem to care if you took at least one of the opponent's lives. This means you HAVE TO WIN to make any noticeable progress, and couple that with the extra frustrating lock-outs and players who can read the characters better than you, and you have a recipe for constant frustration.

    The mechanics have a fair amount of depth to them.... They're just mediocre in design. And again, the lock-outs are complete blasphemy to me.

    Here's to DOA 6!    … Expand
  10. oic0
    Dec 30, 2013
    1
    They basically took a great classic and half heartedly brought it back to milk to death with not so microtransactions. The graphics are lacking. I know they wanted to keep the frame rates up but the old games were defined by their awesome for the time graphics. Also the art style isn't there. The characters they carried over don't look anything like themselves. Basically it feels like aThey basically took a great classic and half heartedly brought it back to milk to death with not so microtransactions. The graphics are lacking. I know they wanted to keep the frame rates up but the old games were defined by their awesome for the time graphics. Also the art style isn't there. The characters they carried over don't look anything like themselves. Basically it feels like a killer instinct themed demo to hold players over until they gget more games. Such a shame.… Expand
  11. Punizher
    Dec 29, 2013
    3
    bought this cos i loved the original game, but like most of the remakes lately from the past this one should stayed in the past.

    i have no idea how people are giving this game a 10/10, the gameplay was ok, ith very poor graphics for a next gen game! i feel this should come out to the 360, i dont see any reason why this is a XboxOne only game. its a button masher with no skill    bought this cos i loved the original game, but like most of the remakes lately from the past this one should stayed in the past.

    i have no idea how people are giving this game a 10/10, the gameplay was ok, ith very poor graphics for a next gen game! i feel this should come out to the 360, i dont see any reason why this is a XboxOne only game.

    its a button masher with no skill whatsoever needed, got bored very fast.    … Expand
  12. Starkiller94
    Jan 10, 2014
    3
    This game is an obvious cash grab for Microsoft and Double Helix. You're basically paying full retail price for like 5% of the game and they plan on selling you the missing 95% later for an outrageous fee. I'm sure they'll nickel and dime you on characters and arenas. It's disgusting that mindless drones actually support this garbage. Don't get me wrong, it's a great fighting game. But IThis game is an obvious cash grab for Microsoft and Double Helix. You're basically paying full retail price for like 5% of the game and they plan on selling you the missing 95% later for an outrageous fee. I'm sure they'll nickel and dime you on characters and arenas. It's disgusting that mindless drones actually support this garbage. Don't get me wrong, it's a great fighting game. But I do not tolerate being sold unfinished products. I know this review will get bombed by the drones but I don't care. Good day...… Expand
  13. catsrock
    Dec 10, 2015
    4
    The fighting mechanics in this game are very fun, intense and fast paced. However the game has way to much micro transactions like most xbox one games.
  14. Roshi
    Nov 23, 2013
    1
    This easy one of the Worst fighting games I have ever played in my life and I have played many horrible fighting games like bloody roar series, Shaqfu primal rage,pit fighter, rise of the robots. But they had some redeeming value of being so bad It was mildly entertaining this game does not have that luxury.

    Oh where to even start with this disaster supposedly 17 or something years in    This easy one of the Worst fighting games I have ever played in my life and I have played many horrible fighting games like bloody roar series, Shaqfu primal rage,pit fighter, rise of the robots. But they had some redeeming value of being so bad It was mildly entertaining this game does not have that luxury.

    Oh where to even start with this disaster supposedly 17 or something years in the making?. I know lets start with a list of the pros and cons.

    Pros.
    The game boots up to the title screen.

    The game runs for a few hours non stop.

    Online play gives convincing illusion that there is no lag when it works.

    Children will have fun pressing buttons at random and winning both online and off for a while. (This was tested we let a 8 year old kid do this while we talked on the headset and he won many matches against adults who have been playing longer than 3 hours. He also got bored of the game in 3 hours and never wanted to play it again)

    There is slightly more particles than I could get on my xbox 360 fighting games.

    A couple songs in the music are decent but not as good as any of the old games soundtracks.

    There is some form of sound.

    There is some form of graphics.

    You can rebind the buttons.

    I am really stretching here since there is so little content to talk about and most of it is not good or fun.

    Cons
    Worst looking fighting game I have ever seen both technical and artwork standpoint.

    Characters look like ridiculous abominations of the old games characters. They now as if Hollywood got a hold of the KI license and made horrible movie version of them. (see street fighter the movie, double dragon, super mario,doom or any other bad video game movie.)

    Bad artwork in general Sadria is lame looks like a mortal kombat character reject. The Rest look like bad street fighter 4 secret darkstalkers 4 characters that was not good enough for capcom to use and left on the cutting room floor.

    UI design is the worst I have ever seen in a fighting game looks like bad 70s kung fu action flick UI the complete opposite of what the series is known for and it is not done well either. Looking at it hurts my eyes I feel physical pain.

    Looks worse than most xbox 360/ps3 fighting games you can get. Models are blocky. Backgrounds are bland and low poly with unpleasant to look at artwork design, bad lighting and shaders. Yes even the famous soul calibur from the dreamcast launch is a contender for looking better than this game.

    Has next to nothing that of was cool in the old games in the series. In fact it has almost no content at all. In fact a person who saw me playing this for 20 minutes had no Idea it was a KI game.

    Has less content than most fighting games from 1991 or 1995 6 dull characters/fighting styles, no interesting modes to play it gets dull after 1 day or a few hours.

    Gameplay is straight out of 1997 with nothing that will advance the genre and it is not done well it is the same junk you have been playing in games such as street fighter/ marvel vs capcom only done much worse. Two Killer instinct gameplay features are tacked on after that in a poor way the result is a Frankenstein that is neither KI or capcom gameplay and neither are good.

    Combos are boring to do and bland with really bad animations that repeat over and over, seems to has less variety in combo animations than Ki1 or ki2 arcade.

    Game is too slow much slower than previous games hits have an annoying hit pause between them that interrupts the flow and makes combos easy to brake leading to one person getting a brake doing a short combo then braking the combo again. You can also brake the combo brake and do it again This is not fun in anyway.

    “Lockout” that supposedly there to stop button mashing does not stop random button pushing combo breakers.

    Controls are not responsive enough even with the ridiculous huge frame window they give to input move commands and dumb down move commands it still wont respond 100% of the time.

    So easy to button mash and win even against players who have been playing much longer and know what they are doing everybody does better when they stop thinking and mash buttons. Tojo training mode is worthless you can only play it as 1 character even if you have them all. Emulation of KI is bad and it is not accurate. Game locks up after running non stop for a few hours. It only runs in 720p and looks just as blurry as my xbox 360 fighting games. Online matches disconnect all the time. --- In all this game is not worth $500 for a xbox one in fact I got this game free from Microsoft by it was placed on my account I would not pay for it. The game smells of unfinished product cash grab where the Devs could care less about the game seriesl There is nothing here to justify new console hardware for fighting games and in fact ust about ever single game on xbox 360/ps3 looks and plays better than this horrible fighting game. You are better off keeping or buying a xbox 360/ps3 and playing the many quality FG    … Expand
  15. MonsterAxeRogue
    Aug 6, 2015
    0
    The graphics and the game are a joke. If your smart buy Mortal Kombat X, if you want REAL next gen graphics and game play. Killer Instinct is more of a crappy Street fighter clone than an actual remake or sequel and I really do mean "CRAPPY". It's too bad too, because the previous installments were such great fighting games. Anyone who gives this game a 7-10 must be getting paid to do so.
  16. SuperJamaican
    Dec 20, 2013
    2
    As a fighting game GOD I must play every fighting game. But this hardly counts as a game, maybe a demo but not a full game. Ill keep it short and sweet....ITS FREE so make sure you get it. Then make sure to email someone at double-helix and tell them they might as well work with dead or alive Dev crew as they are completely lacking in ideas, originality and content. Put it this way ifAs a fighting game GOD I must play every fighting game. But this hardly counts as a game, maybe a demo but not a full game. Ill keep it short and sweet....ITS FREE so make sure you get it. Then make sure to email someone at double-helix and tell them they might as well work with dead or alive Dev crew as they are completely lacking in ideas, originality and content. Put it this way if your a fan of 3-d fighters like DoA or Tekken stay far away from this mediocre piece of garbage...cuz compared to those this doesn't compete. You are on crack if you give this game anything but a 1-6, or an extremely sour fan boy to not admit the truth.… Expand
  17. Broyax
    Jan 18, 2017
    0
    Quelle est cette odeur nauséabonde ? c'est l'odeur du combo free to pay-pay to win, autrment dit du jeu gratuit à péage multi-directionnel optionnel très fortement recommandé : en effet enchaîner les combats avec toujours le même personnage devient lassant, aussi profitez de notre pack à xx euros, c'est une promo ! et laissez-vous tentez par quelques micro-transactions par la même occasionQuelle est cette odeur nauséabonde ? c'est l'odeur du combo free to pay-pay to win, autrment dit du jeu gratuit à péage multi-directionnel optionnel très fortement recommandé : en effet enchaîner les combats avec toujours le même personnage devient lassant, aussi profitez de notre pack à xx euros, c'est une promo ! et laissez-vous tentez par quelques micro-transactions par la même occasion !

    D'un autre côté, on ne voit vraiment pas pourquoi on s'infligerait ça puisqu'il s'agit du pire jeu de baston de tous les temps. Graphiquement à peine correct et affublé d'une direction artistique qui n'a rien d'artistique, ses animations font penser à un vieux jeu 2D du fond du troisième tiroir en bas dans la cave, c'est-à-dire deux frames d'animation maximum. Il en résulte une impression de saccade déplorable, ce qui, combiné à la vitesse délirante des coups, rend le jeu totalement illisible et grotesque.

    La musique provient certainement d'une poubelle tant elle écorche les oreilles et en ce qui concerne le multi-joueurs qu'il soit local ou sur le réseau, c'est toujours celui qui appuie le plus vite qui gagne. Très fatigant pour le pouce et la manette tout cela.

    Il est clair que n'importe quel jeu japonais met ce Killer machin à l'amende sans forcer, car s'ils font la course aux micro-paiements également, ils s'avèrent au moins jolis à regarder et d'une prise en main correcte. Tout le contraire de cette catastrophe digitale d'un mauvais goût flagrant.    … Expand
  18. warwocl512
    Jan 16, 2021
    0
    fgadsfdsajklfjdk;slaakl;fdloslfd fdfdfd fdfdkfdls Lmaos funny for fun kkkkkkkkk

Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best Xbox One Game of 2013
5
#5 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2013
4
#4 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 51 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 51
  3. Negative: 0 out of 51
  1. Critical Hit
    Oct 9, 2014
    80
    Flashy, brutal and deeper than you'd expect. Killer Instinct is back baby.
    Read full review
  2. XGN
    Jan 3, 2014
    70
    Even though the demo is pretty disappointing, the full Killer Instinct proves to be a really nice addiction to the fighting genre. Most of the characters come directly from the first Killer Instinct-game, but this time they look really gorgeous on the new Xbox One. The fighting system of Killer Instinct is a very layered one, which will keep you busy for loads of hours although a campaign mode is definitely missed.
    Read full review
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Dec 29, 2013
    70
    An excellent tutorial partially makes up for the tiny roster. [Feb 2014, p.68]
See all critic reviews »