Killer Instinct was on display at the Microsoft Xbox One booth at the EB Expo this weekend and I played a few very competitive rounds some other friendly gamers at the expo.
While some improved textures and nice visual effects were on display, the gameplay and presentation really felt no different (or any better) than any middling last gen fighter. While everything moved very smoothly owing to a solid 60 frames per second, the fighters felt almost as if they moved too fast, making the visuals appear muddy as a blur of attacks took place with accompanying visual flares.
Killer Instinct unfortunately fails to innovate in the way that games like Street Fighter 4 and Soul Calibur IV combined updated visuals with much improved presentation as they moved to a new generation of consoles. It feels like being forced to play Dead or Alive again after your much loved Tekken disc was broken in a freak accident. The quality of the gameplay, presentation and personality just doesn’t seem to be there compared to other contemporary fighters.
In short, Killer Instinct is a very fast fighter and workable fighter which seems to have failed to innovate in the most important areas and is cashing in on name recognition more than anything else.
