The Most Important Step of a Journey is the First.

After playing Spinal for a couple of months, I started to learn more and more of the Fighting Game Community. The FGC is a group that plays fighting games at a competitive level for glory and prizes at tournaments across the globe. I came across the FGC as I was looking at YouTube videos so that I could become a better player. I happened to click on a video titled "EVO 2014 Killer Instinct Top 8" and this is where my eyes were opened. I learned that Evolution Championship Series is the world's largest fighting game tournament and is annually held in Las Vegas during the summer. I eventually found the trailer for EVO 2015, and I will post it below so that you guys can take a look and have some idea about it.

EVO 2015 Trailer (Click Me)

After I viewed that video, I began to look up any Texas competitions that were happening soon, so that I would get some experience. After some Google search, I came across a website that was advertising a Killer Instinct World Cup. I decided to do more research on this Killer Instinct World Cup and it led me to Ultra Arcade's website who were the people in charge of the event. They also said that there would be qualifying events throughout the year and that the first event would be held in December of 2014 at Ultra Arcade in San Antonio, Texas. Kombo Klash was the first qualifier for the KI World Cup and would be open to the public for registration via Twitter. So I signed up for Twitter and made sure to contact the Ultra Arcade twitter so that I could register for my first tournament that would go under way in December later that year. I was officially registered and ready to go to my first tournament and I couldn't wait to see where I stood as a player with some of the greats.

Bad to the Bone

"C-C-Combo Breaker" This phrase used to boom through arcades, and that was part of the charm of the original Killer Instinct. The game was unapologetically loud and in your face in hopes to get kids to come over and spend their quarters. Now, I was not gifted with the experience of playing the game in the arcades, but I was able to enjoy the game from the comfort of my home via the game's release on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Playing it on the SNES was not as rewarding as playing the arcade version of it but I didn't care, I was hooked.


Being a fan of the series since I was kid, meant that I was exposed to the roster. As stated before, this roster was extremely diverse and had all kinds of stereotypes/archetypes such as a female raptor who had been genetically spliced named Riptor to an ice alien named Glacius who had crash landed on Earth in hopes of finding his lost comrades.

Riptor

Glacius

The cast had amazing variety but there was one character that I was immediately drawn to as a kid. There was a skeleton that carried a sword and shield who had the ability to mimic his opponents. This character had a red bandana along with armor that gave us an idea that he was a pirate in a former life. This character's name was Spinal and I fell in love with him since the very beginning. He had a ghoulish laugh that he would let out as he was beating the opponent and during his win animation.

Spinal

When I heard that we were getting a new game, I was anticipating the reveal of Spinal and his new design. As the game was getting closer to release, the developers had stated that the game would launch with six characters, and that fan favorites Spinal and Fulgore would be released in January and  March of 2014 respectively. On January 30th of 2014, the Spinal reveal trailer was released on YouTube stating that we would get Spinal on January 31st.

Killer Instinct Spinal Reveal Trailer (Click Me)

Spinal in Killer Instinct 2013

I remember watching the trailer in my calculus class and just being so excited that I would be getting a new version of my favorite character in the franchise and that he was essentially going to be playable the next day. I watched just about any YouTube video I could, so that I could hear other people's impressions and predictions of him. I knew from that day on that I was going to play this beloved character because I never thought that I would get another version of him. For those of you who happened to click on the link and watch his reveal trailer, hearing his cackling laugh at the end gave me chills down my spine.