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6) Killer Instinct (Series)
Platforms: SNES, Nintendo 64 (1994, 1996)
Rare’s entry into the fighting game arena was with the much-loved Killer Instinct on SNES. Like the Donkey Kong Country games, Killer Instinct featured incredible pre-rendered graphics that pushed the SNES hardware to places few thought possible. Rather than have players compete in best-of-three matches, Rare opted to give each opponent two health bars. Once both bars had been depleted, the fighter left standing won. Fighting is more akin to Mortal Kombat than Street Fighter, with the focus being on completing ludicrously long combo chains to take down opponents. Rare was fortunate in that it not only created a solid fighting system, but populated it with a great cast of characters, too. Players enjoyed fighting with characters like Jago, Black Orchid, Fulgore, and Glacius, and were popular enough to warrant being in their own comic book! Killer Instinct is definitely in its own niche as a fighting game, but for those who can appreciate its challenging system of combos and combo breaks, it’s an immensely satisfying series.
I honestly didn’t enjoy Banjo-Tooie all that much. Banjo-Kazooie was epic and is one of my favorite games ever, but Banjo-Tooie just felt too big to me. It took too long to get around levels, too long to get from one objective to the next, and too long to get between worlds in the overworld.
Then there’s the whole Stop n Swop thing, but regardless. BK, brilliant. BT, ehhh.
Maybe it’s because I have played it more, but I couldn’t get enough of Banjo-Tooie! It felt like everything a sequel should be: bigger, better and with just the right amount of new things to do.
And the less said about Banjo & Kazooie’s adventures post-Nintendo the better :)