Killer Instinct was a good (and very successful) arcade game two and a half years ago. It wasn't the greatest, but it was better than a lot. After an awful Super NES port, Nintendo released Killer Instinct 2 for the arcade. It improved on the original in terms of graphics and gameplay.

Killer Instinct was one of those original N64 games (or Ultra 64 back then) announced quite a while ago. Well, since N64 was delayed, KI 2 came out before Nintendo 64 did, so it would only be natural for Nintendo to release KI 2 for N64 rather than the original.

Enough with the history lesson. Killer Instinct is one of those fighting games that is despised by a lot and loved by a lot. Some people like its unique way of doing combos. Granted, it's not as polished as it could be and sometimes turns on you, but it is a nice change of pace. Still, the major flaw of the combo system is there. Just block everything your opponent does and unleash your 60 hit combo and finish him/her off. It plays a lot like your turn, my turn, your turn, my turn, etc. It's a battle of who has the combos that take away the most damage. Thankfully, Rare has included a training mode so you can figure out all of those 60 hit combos.

The fighters in this game were obviously designed for adolescents (Orchid says it all). They are not as original as they could be. Where are the original characters of the Street Fighter, Tekken, or Virtua Fighter series? Ditto for the arenas, which try to trick you into thinking you are playing a 3D fighting game, but ultimately this is still a 2D fighter. If you picture it in your mind, you'll see that they'd make for some interesting 3D fighting game battlegrounds.

The graphics are some of the best. You can clearly see everything, and the game rarely slows down regardless of the speed of the fights. A few missing frames of animation show their face, but only diehard KI fans will be able to pick them out.

All in all, this isn't the worst of the bunch, but you can sure do a heckuva lot better.

Overall: 7.5