Good news, fighting game fans: Killer Instinct, one of the iconic fighting games of the early 3D era, might be coming back. According to PlayXBLA, Microsoft has “either renewed or re-filed [the Killer Instinct] trademark application in various jurisdictions.” Either that means that we are going to get some awesome HD remakes soon, or we are going to get some incredibly hype new Killer Instinct titles. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
Killer Instinct is largely known for hinging it’s gameplay on its combo mechanics. It was one of the first games to feature extremely long combos that could stretch to hundreds of hits. It was also one of the first games to popularize “combo breaker” mechanics. Mike Z of Reverge Labs once said that Killer Instinct was a ton of fun in single-player, but not so much fun in multiplayer. This was because of its lack of balance and the ease in which your opponents could break your combo. However, if the title was updated with current generation technology with game balance in mind, we may have one of the most awesome combo-fests on our hands since Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
We will bring you more information on the Killer Instinct trademark revival as it becomes available.