Prerelease:Killer Instinct (Arcade)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Killer Instinct (Arcade).

Promotional Video

This is an early video of the arcade version of Killer Instinct. Among the differences present:

• The player select screen uses a traditional grid instead of the "reels" seen in the final. The highlighted fighters' intro videos play in the background, instead of having rotating sprites of the fighters. Some of the small portraits have also changed since then.
• Cinder and Sabrewulf are named "Meltdown" and "Warwolf", respectively.
• The announcer is much more subdued, quietly speaking the combo names instead of yelling them as in the final. There are also some differences in the combo level order: we can see Mega (4), Super (5; 4 in the final), Hyper (6; 5 in the final), Mondo (8) and Elite (10).
• Curiously, starting at 0:49 a early version of the Funky's Flights theme from Donkey Kong Country starts playing.
• At 1:35, there's an unknown stage that looks like a gray platform with glowing pillars in the corners.
• Orchid's stage (most visible at 1:52) is less colorful, with a gray rooftop and a yellow and black sky instead of a brown rooftop and a blue sky. The buildings in the background also look less futuristic.
• Jago's fully-powered Wind Kick not only travels the length of the screen, it can travel from one end of the stage to the other!

Concept Art

This page or section has one or more broken YouTube links. Please find an archived version of the video(s) or a suitable replacement.

To do: Properly bring over and highlight the design differences here, including the artists commentary.

Kevin Bayliss, one of the games artists, shows off his early sketches of characters, including early iterations known characters and some discarded ideas.