Killer Instinct Gold Interview (Video Games Magazine)

The following interview was conducted on September 3rd, 1996 with Simon Farmer of Rare, for German publication, “Video Games Magazine”. The interview has been translated and hosted here for posterity.

Video Games Magazine: Will we find hidden characters or new opponents in KI Gold?

Rare: It is very possible – wait and see!

Video Games Magazine: How many ‘normal’ fighters will be included in the final version? More than with the Arcade machine?

Rare: A total of 10 characters compared to KI2. No more are planned at the present time.

Video Games Magazine: A useful feature of Tekken 2 was that you could look up special moves during the duels with the start button. Will that also be the case with the N64 version of Killer Instinct?

Rare: This will not be possible during the fight. But you can calmly rehearse all special moves including Combos, Counters, Combo Breakers and Danger Moves in two fundamentally different Trainer Modes. Your joypad input will be shown there so that you can see why one or the other move did not work.

Video Games Magazine: Some backgrounds appear less animated than in the arcade. Does that mean model memory problems or does something else change?

Rare: In our opinion, the backgrounds are much more lifelike thanks to the 3D display and camera pans. Additional animations are currently not planned.

Video Games Magazine: How many Ultimate / Ultra combos do the characters have?

Rare: Most have at least 2 Ultra Combos up their sleeves, with the exception of Orchid, who only has one.

Video Games Magazine: How many camera angles will you be able to select during the game?

Rare: The camera angles are automatically adjusted depending on the battle; the player cannot alter them.

Video Games Magazine: How do you rate KI Gold compared to hits like Tekken 2/ Soul Edge by Namco or Virtua Fighter 3 by Sega?

Rare: You can’t easily compare that, since the games mentioned are pure 3D fighters, while we see KI more as 2.5D. We think that there are still a lot of gameplay issues with 3D Beat’em Ups. That’s why we stick with our 2.5D principle at Rare, until we have found a system or a new method that overcomes these problems. Fighting games of this type still offer much more than real 3D Fighters in terms of pure gameplay.

Video Games Magazine: Right. Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 have more in terms of gaming fun than Battle Arena Toshinden. Would KI Gold actually also be feasible on a 32-bit platform like PlayStation or Saturn, without compromising on quality?

Rare: That’s easy to answer. In one word: no!