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.

A Dream Come True

In 1994, Killer Instinct was released in arcades across the country with a SNES port on the way. After much success, production soon began on a sequel. In 1996, Killer Instinct 2 was released in arcades with Killer Instinct Gold being the port that would make its ways to homes everywhere via the Nintendo 64. The franchise was a hit and people would flock to these machines as the game would scream "ULTRA!!!!" across the arcade. The game is remembered for some if its key design points such as being able to break your opponents combos and its diverse cast of anything from a killer robot who looks like a cross between the Terminator and the Predator named Fulgore to a werewolf named Sabrewulf who resides in his family castle and can control the bats that plague the estate. Many people were hopeful that the franchise would be able to use its success as a way to stay in the fighting game genre along side other favorite franchises such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, but sadly that wasn't the case. Fans never got any word of a sequel and could do nothing but hope for a 3rd installment in the franchise, so when Rare, who was the company who developed the first two Killer Instinct games, was purchased by Microsoft Studios, things began to look bleak for the future of the franchise.

Fulgore

Sabrewulf

In 2013, almost 20 years later after the original game's release in arcades, fans got a taste of what they thought could only be a dream as the Xbox Press Conference unveiled an exclusive trailer at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Killer Instinct E3 Reveal Trailer (Click Me)

It was official, Killer Instinct would finally get a 3rd installment and it would be exclusive to the Xbox One. It looked true to form with long combos and veteran characters returning.

I'm Damian Gonzalez and ever since I saw that reveal back in 2013, I was grateful that we would finally get another Killer Instinct. I wasn't old enough to experience the games in arcades but I had both the SNES port of the original and the N64 port of Gold and remember growing up playing these games and loving them. As soon as I saw the trailer, I told myself that I going to put in as much effort as I needed to be great at this game. Little did I know what that would require from me and the journey it would take me on, along with those that I would meet on the way. This blog is to share some of the experiences I can attribute to Killer Instinct over the past few years with anybody who comes across.