Killer Instinct ROM

Also, be sure to check out Street Fighter 2.

Killer Instinct is a 2.5D fighting game developed by Rare and published by Midway. It was originally released for arcades in October 1994, and ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy the following year. The game’s plot involves an all-powerful corporation organizing a fighting tournament. The story was adapted in a limited comic book series published under the short-lived Acclaim Comics imprint.

Ultratech is a very powerful megacorporation which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct. Along with regular participants, experimental creatures created by Ultratech also fight in the tournament so their strength can be tested. Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and releases a two-headed cyclops, satyr-like monster called Eyedol from his dimensional prison in Limbo. 

Killer Instinct featured more detailed graphics and more diverse characters than any other games of its genre as well as some gameplay elements unique to fighting games of the time. Instead of fighting enemies in best-of-three-rounds bouts, each player has two life bars. The player that depletes the other player’s life bars first wins the match. The game also introduced “auto-doubles”, a feature which allows players to press a certain sequence of buttons to make characters automatically perform combos on opponents.

Also featured in the game are “combo breakers”, special defensive moves that can interrupt combos. Killer Instinct plays like many other fighting games, in which the player controls a character to beat an opponent in a one-on-one encounter. The game borrows the attack set of Street Fighter and is also inspired by the finishing moves from Mortal Kombat. There are also several features that distinguish it from other franchises.