So back in 1998, I was around 7-8 years old and at the time I was still playing on the NES. One day, my parents came home with a SNES and it changed my life forever. They had bought a SNES with a few games, some of the better ones or at least the ones that many people love and remember: Megaman X, Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, F-Zero, Gradius 3, Mortal Kombat 2, Super Metroid and Super Mario World. (I would eventually get other games)
Among them was a black cartridge with a robot on it’s picture and I thought “this must be an action game and that robot is either the main character that I’ll be using or one of the enemies”. Never expected it to be a fighting game so I was quite surprised when I started playing it.
As I played it, I couldn’t help but be amazed by everything: the graphics, characters, music, sound effects etc. and so this game instantly clicked with me and I couldn’t stop playing it. I remember those wonderful days as a kid in the 3rd grade, couldn’t wait to come back home after school to boot up my SNES and start playing, I really miss those days.
Obviously as time went on, I found interest in other games when I got a PS1 and kind of forgot about KI although not completely as a few years later in 2005 I buried my SNES out of other belongings that were in boxes and started playing it again, this time introducing it to my younger brother. Then I wondered “what happened to this game?” it surprised me that KI never continued after KI2 and gold.
As the years went on by, I waited and waited while doing some research on KI about everything like the characters, moves, development team and I also watched all sorts of videos about KI on youtube including tributes, compilations and walkthroughs. Then I stopped waiting around 2011.
In 2012, I found MaximilianDood’s youtube channel thanks to my brother and found some interest in his Assist Me series but never really paid too much attention to his channel. A year later in 2013, the return of KI was announced and as you can imagine, I was emotional, I did cry a little bit but I was also very happy yet a little skeptical because I was happy KI was back but at the same time I thought “oh no, they’re going to ruin another classic” so I was careful.
I saw Max’s reaction to the KI teaser at E3 2013 and started to pay more attention to his videos. I’ll be honest though, it wasn’t until Thunder was revealed when I finally made the choice to buy this game eventually, as his return made me excited for the rest of the cast, couldn’t wait to see Fulgore, Cinder, Spinal and the others.
Anyhow, this is how I found out about KI a long time ago and why it means so much to me. What’s your KI story? How did you hear about KI? And how much does KI mean to you? I’m very interested in reading what you all have to say so please discuss.