Ever since I was little I grew up on games such as Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct, but fast forwarding to 2016 we’ve seen remakes of classic games, but by far the most interesting so far has been Killer Instinct on the Xbox One and Windows 10. At this time we’re now on Season 3 of the game, which brings our total in-game roster up to 26 characters and while I’ve seen other games with lists about that big, none can bring in characters from games like Gears of War, Halo and let’s not forget Battletoads.
How is Season 3 of Killer Instinct? Well we’re here to find out what makes Season 3 the best or worst out of the ongoing game. Let’s get started, shall we?
To start off, we’ve been following main stories of many of the Season 1 characters for some time. While I’ve stopped playing those story-lines I’ve went to playing online or simply against friends. When Season 3 released, we all were welcomed with the characters Kim Wu, Tusk, Arbiter and Rash. Later on we we’re met with General Raam, and much more. While I mainly played against the AI to get a feel for each character how fluid Tusk was in-game. While I’ve noticed some characters in past seasons being harder to control I tend to keep with characters who control easier and not a power house character that have crazy controls for combos and so forth. While this is a first on reviewing a fighting game characters such as General Raam and Mira both were characters I enjoyed playing as from time to time. While most of the time I did use the combo-assist I do hope one day I can be good as many of the others I’ve watched during EVO. As for the entire roster for Season 3 it’s an overall great list, but while each character released I played quite a bit and would leave the game alone until the next release. Yes, I know some games will have people burn out quickly, but after spending time with each character you’ll get a feel on how they control and move on.
While Season 3 doesn’t have a story like Season 1 included, Season 3 has added a new game mode recently titled Shadow Lords mode, which features a mobile style game. What do I mean by that? I mean you’ll still be playing Killer Instinct like you always have by fighting characters, but this time you’ll be playing in the way of buying and unlocking items for your characters. For example: guardians that will provide extra damage, poison, better blocking and more. This doesn’t include items to heal your characters after battles and buffing your characters as well. By far the Shadow Lords mode has pulled me away from the base game since it’s release and I may or may not have already spent some funds to unlock better guardians, open more card packs. You don’t have to spend money, but you can earn funds during fights so you can in turn get more card packs, which will help you save the world from Gargos.
What is this new mode about? There is another dimension known as the Astral Plane, which is ruled by Gargos. From the story alone, it states long ago the other Astral beings resisted this Shadow Lord, but he slew them all and stole their powers. Guardians who fled from Gargos came to our world and sealed the Astral Plane behind them so that the corruption of Gargos could never taint another world. To provide more details Kan-Ra reopened that door, manipulated by Gargos’. Now Gargos is invading the Earth with his army of duplicate fighters also called Mimics. What are Mimics? Copies of your fighters, of course! As you can guess you’ll be fighting them a lot to unlock new items, guardians, and in-game funds to obtain more. While I’d enjoy going into more details on this new story for Season 3 and the game mode I’d be providing a bit too much information, but trust me when I say this new mode has had me hooked.
As for the soundtrack and art throughout Killer Instinct how can anyone say it looks or sounds bad? The sound tracks are still great to listen to when fighting or even on the main menu. Nothing like good music to rock out too, right? The art many of us had seen the in-game arenas we happen to fight in and you can tell the team has put in a lot of work in both improving some of the areas and the new mode and characters in-game.
Overall, Season 3 did start off slow in terms of new ways to play the game, but it has been one hell of a release and as stated Sept. 20th a new mode Shadow Lords Mode was released and has had me going back to save the world from Gargos. While just recently the definitive edition released the game is worth picking up. Even if you’re not a fan of fighting games the price for three seasons of content, this new game mode as well as access to the classic games is a win for anyone. If you’re looking for a good fighting game in the mix of many this will be one to pick up.
