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I watched this last night, and I grew pretty sad. It feels like KI is fading out of the scope at Microsoft, and could possibly never come back. The music Max used made me feel like hope has gone downward for the game getting a follow up on Series X. We just donât have any positive answers from MS.
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You and me both, brother. Itâs really distressing and discouraging to me as a fan that a really cool and underrated series oozing with so much potential like KI would be treated this way. Like, what the hell?
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Good News/Bad News - Microsoft cannot find a Killer Instinct developer â click for full rumor/story.
If this is true, I see a bright future for KI, and we should keep up the good fight. (#BringBackKI) If the Xbox crew is listening, I NEEDED to have the Xbox One on Day One for KI, and Iâd go out of my way for a Series X if I knew that more KI was confirmed to be on the wayâŠ
Stay positive and wish on a shooting star- they all canât be damaged Glacius spaceships! 
-Zenek
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Interesting. If itâs true, then the fact that Microsoft is looking for a developer could indicate that they recognize that there is an interest in KI. That said, however, the fact that Microsoft canât find a developer is concerning.
Who would be a good developer for KI? Personally, I think NetherRealm Studios would seem the obvious choice given their pedigrees with âInjusticeâ and the MK series, plus, Ed Boon and Ken Lobb have both expressed an interest in doing an MK/KI crossover. They also set the bar for some really compelling story modes, and I think KI having a more developed story would definitely increase its popularity. It has all the right parts for a compelling story in its own right, after all.
Another possibility - if Rare isnât interested in doing it (which would be pretty messed up imo), then Playtonic Games might be worth considering, especially since it is made up of a lot of former Rare staff who had worked on KI.
I personally think MS isnât done with KI yet. I mean they did 3 seasons with some extras after that so financially the game must have at least recouped itâs costs.
Struggling to find a dev makes sense to me as theyâd want to make sure that dev wasnât bought out by another company and could commit fully to the project. Hell they may even want to assemble their own dev team (which is what Iâve been saying from the start) directly within MS.
It doesnât surprise me that Rare isnât interested in doing it, when was the last time that current team worked on a fighting game?
Personally I think MS should create a team directly within MS, have it developed internally.
Bring back the original characters from KI 1 and 2, keep some of the new ones and have a few fresh faces.
Each character should have an Ultimate or donât bother putting them in at all. Make the word ULTIMATE mean something. Keep them cinematic and impactful, if the ultimate is to imply a character death they need to imply it a little better than before. Make them an extension of the character and their personality.
Iâd like to see them bring back No Mercy finishers too, not gory like MK but cinematic and stylised. Go for style over gore and shock factor. Again make them an extension of the character. A teen rating can go a long way in terms of what you can show on the screen.
E.g. Jago prays and begins to walk away from his startled opponent. He looks behind him slightly and a car falls near to the opponent but doesnât hit them. As the bewildered opponent looks around several cars of different makes and models fall down on top of the opponent. Their hand visible struggling before becoming still.
No blood. No gore. Touch of humour. Yes thank you Iâll take all of that.
Unlock system was grindy but at least all players of all skill levels could unlock all content. Nothing worse than spending money on a game that locks content behind skill walls. You offset this by having different ways to unlock the same content. Complete arcade on the hardest difficulty nabs you a costume, but for the less skilled players that same content unlocks after say 4 hours of playtime or after theyâve played 30 matches etc.
Max said something about the game should be like MS smash bros. I kinda like this notion, could be a way to bring in some really cool characters from MS back catalogue.
Thatâs it Iâm finished Iâm gonna go and eat my lunch now.
Definitely.
Hell yes to this. One of the things that bugged the hell out of me with the current Ultimates is that they seemed too much like SF4âs Super moves and didnât feel satisfying at all (although I did like some of the camera work and effects for Tusk, Glacius and Sabrewulf). They feltâŠsimultaneously overdone in the worst way, and kind of cliched in parts, with a lot of reused assets. I mean, Jago doing a spirit bomb? Okay, I can kind of picture it. Fulgoreâs laser? Figured as much. Hisakoâs was kind of a given, but the animation of the faces? Oof. And thatâs not even pointing out the problems with the poses and sound effect for charactersâ bodies snapping in her Ultimate. The othersâŠa lot of the problems with the Ultimates by IG in general is that all felt like an afterthought, that they were all just done with the âgood enoughâ approach, with their taking too much influence from anime in some cases. Even worse, that whole thing with making it kind of ambiguous in certain parts by not showing a decapitation like in Jagoâs. Iâm not saying that they should, but there are so many things one can do with camera work, sound, etc. Looking back at the Ultimate Double Helix originally made for Shago, while it was kind of flashy, if not a little overdone, you were able to see the consequences and impact, with the character lying lifelessly on the ground not breathing. Simple, but effective. In IGâs case? Thereâs no sense of impact or dread. âOh, Shago might have cut his downed opponent. Weâre just not going to show you.â The Ultimates IG made just feltâŠempty. Impotent.
I think what made the originals great was that they were both creepy, intense and stood out. They felt brutal. Like, yeah, you didnât see Riptor eat someone, let alone gut someone, just her with a bloated stomach and her belching and farting, but by the same token, though, that move highlighted her snake-like nature. The concept of being eaten whole (and while one was still alive) by a snake is in itself terrifying to think about. The belches and farts were little touches of dark humor to add some brevity. Current Riptorâs? I absolutely despised it as a Riptor fan; not only was it too cutesy, but it made a joke of my favorite character. F#ck that. Even though the early games were never as gory as âMortal Kombatâ, they did have at least some gore. After all, this is a game premised on the idea of a televised bloodsport, a tournament to the death. The original game had an oppressive and dark atmosphere, something that was hinted at very strongly in its overall presentation, similar to âTerminatorsâ 1 and 2. They were over the top, sure, but they were also violent and brutal. The current game kind of has it in places, but that aspect is kind of washed out overall. In that respect, I think KI would be better off having a Mature rating, in order to get a darker feel and atmosphere. It doesnât have to be as gory as MK, but it needs at least some gore.
THIS!
One Ultimate/No Mercy I want back is Riptorâs, just because it was both creepy and funny at the same time.
Iâm the complete opposite. While I certainly encourage the use of guest characters in fighting games, the thing about KI, though, is that it has an identity of its own, and making it into a kind of MS Smash equivalent can really hurt the series. A lot of people see the fighters of KI as being like toys that one picks up and plays with, and that is absolutely the wrong way of looking at them; while itâs true a lot of the fighters are based off of some aspect of pop culture, they all have features that made them stood out. So, even though Riptor is unmistakably based off of the raptors from âJurassic Parkâ, she still stood out and had distinguishing features such as the snake-like look, the scorpion-like tail that hung over the body, four scythe-like claws instead of one per foot, a humanoid-like frame and proportions, etc. Fulgore may have been based off of âRobocopâ, âTerminatorâ and âPredatorâ, but it too also stood out from those characters such as the dual wrist blades (at least, before âPredatorsâ 1 and 2), the weird juxtaposition of ninja and medieval knight, etc. The comic book aesthetic was also a distinguishing feature - I could see a lot of these characters fitting into the pages of something like â2000 A.D.â or the pages of Judge Dredd, something that could be drawn up by the likes of Simon Bisley or Todd McFarlane at their best.
To be fair, the original KI team, as far as I am aware, never had worked on a fighting game either, prior to their developing KI1.
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As I recall, you are correct.
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Itâs too bad they canât recover some of the talent that worked on Season 1 and also talent that worked on the rest of the game. I think it is time for MS to assemble the Avengers in house for KI, only called upon when KI needs work lol.
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I just canât understand why Rare doesnât do a new KI game themselves, just because theyâre the ones who made the series in the first place. I hope one day they do so, if not Playtonic Games or the guys that had been involved with DH.
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Thereâs only a few (if that) members of the original dev team still working at Rare. Martin Hollis, Chris Tilston and Mark Betteridge all key players in designing and programming the original games have left Rare. Kevin Bayliss no longer works for Rare.
The current Rare is not the same one that made KI all those years ago.
True, unfortunately.
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Rare is owned by Microsoft, so they can only create a sequel and work on the franchise if Xbox Studios assigns them the project.
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