"Why Rare, why?"

Killer Instinct is my favorite game in existence. I love everything about it, I love it so much that I put it in my name. That is what makes this game sting so much. It doesn't even come close to living up to KI, and the worst part is, this is mainly because of mistakes that could have been avoided so easily.
Killer Instinct Gold is a port of the arcade game, Killer Instinct 2. The original Killer Instinct was an arcade game from the mid 90s that showcased what was supposedly N64 hardware. It wasn't really running on N64 hardware, but it had amazing graphics and sound. It was a futuristic fighting game. It also had the best combo system in existence to this day. A year later, Rare released a disapointing sequal called KI2. KI had already had an excellant port to SNES, so KI2 was chosen to be made for the then new N64. It was retitled KI Gold and released in late 1996. The story is that Ultratech, an evil coporation who makes weapons and hosts the Killer Instinct tournament every year has been blasted back in time after their top fighter was defeated in the first KI. In the past, for some reason they start another tournament.

Graphics: 10/10
I'll give this game credit where it is due. The graphics are incredible, bright and detailed, an almost perfect port of the KI2 arcade machine. But bad graphics can't make up for bad gameplay....

Sound: 6/10
Standard fighting game music and sound effects. I took a point off because the announcing of combos was removed from the arcade. This could be understandable since N64 was cartridge based, but the SNES KI had them.

Gameplay: 4/10
This is where the game fails. You choose one of ten fighters, 7 old and 3 new. The gameplay is like KI1, except they messed up the balance by reworking the combo system to be less skill based, probably because people complained about how easily an experienced KI player could crush a novice. This wasn't enough to draw in casual fans, and it disgusted hardcore KI players like myself. Now here's the part that upsets me the most: they made, without a doubt, the WORST character choices in history. They removed the three best fighters from KI1 (Thunder, Riptor, and Cinder) and replaced them with a trio of boring characters (Tusk, Maya, and Kim Wu). That is just unexcusable, messing up is one thing, but purposely removing the best characters is just sadistic. The character choices and messing up of the fighting system is what makes KI Gold such a disapointing sequal. Even if it were an original game, it would still be a boring, below average fighter.

Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 4/10
Overall (not an average): 4/10

Conclusion:
Don't buy this game. If you've never played a KI before, get the SNES version. If you've played the SNES version and yearn for a worthy sequel, join me in praying for a Killer Instinct 3.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/02, Updated 05/30/02