"C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!! Classic..."

Killer Instinct Gold is one of games from the legendary arcade fighting series, Killer Instinct. It's the series' first move into the world of 3-D, and it does it well.

Gameplay- 10/10
How fun is this game to play? Very. Seriously, it's a helluva lotta fun to play. How easy or hard is the game to play? Well in terms of controls, the game is real easy to pick up and play. There are a lot of different buttons and sequences to remember, but if you ever forget them you can go into Practice mode and, uh, practice :) Now how hard is it in terms of actually playing and beating? It falls right around the middle. It has a bunch of different difficulty settings to choose from, so you can make it as hard or easy as you want. And of course, like all games, it gets a lot easier with skill.

Story- 9/10
Story isn't really something you'd play a fighting game for, but in comparison to other fighting game stories, this one is pretty good. You play as one of eleven different characters, from an alien made of ice to a gargoyle to a ninja. You're in a tournament that's being held by this evil futuristic company called Ultratech. They're secretly using this tournament to find the best fighter out there and test their evil creations on them. Hm, well that doesn't really sound all that impressive, but the real good story comes from the backgrounds of all the characters. Let's see, well one guy was turned into a werewolf so he's in the tournament so he can get a cure, one guy is an alien that was caught by Ultratech, one girl is in the army... The list goes on and on and that's just the bare bones of those characters I mentioned.

Graphics- 10/10
Many great 2-D games were ruined in their transition from 2-D to 3-D. Well that's not the case here. The graphics look really good. Plenty of color in the wide variety of characters and arenas, good textures, not all blocky and bumpy... They're really good for the N64.

Sound- 10/10
The sound is great. Plenty of catchy beats and songs, and some really nice sound effects. And it has the classic "C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!" phrase that's pretty popular on the message boards >_> Well what's not to love?

Play time/Replayability- 9/10
I got this game a couple years ago when it was already pretty old. It kept me busy for hours. About 4 or 5 different modes, then if you can get some friends to play with, then it's even better and longer. Then I got a Gamecube, and the N64 just kinda went away for a while. Well today, I found myself getting out the old N64 and playing KI Gold again. It's a great game to pick up every now and then when you feel bored and wanna beat someone up >_> The only thing wrong with this game is that I can't play it for an extended amount of time. I can only play it for 20-30 minutes at a time. So it's a good game in small doses.

This game is definitely worth buying new. The only problem is is that this game is pretty old, so you'll probably have a hard time finding it. Well if you can find it, new or used, definitely buy it. I wouldn't really say it's worth searching for, because it'll be a long and hard search, but if you're ever at a gaming store, just ask someone if they have it. If they do, get it, if they don't, just brush it aside and it'll be ok. But yeah, definitely get it if you can find it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/04