This is the Trivia page for the original two Killer Instinct titles from the 1990s. For the 2013 reboot, see here.
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: In a very minor example, despite the insane Memetic Mutation the "Combo Breaker" soundclip has reached (in no small part thanks to the Large-Ham Announcer), most people recognize it with the letter C emphasized five times*. In reality, it's emphasized six times*.
- Dueling Works: With Sega's Eternal Champions back in The '90s. KI and EC were made as dark and violent fighting games by the leading console manufacturers at the time as response to Mortal Kombat, with outlandish character designs and gallons of Rule of Cool.
- Executive Meddling: According to game designer Kevin Bayliss, the black cartridges were suggested by Nintendo.
- Feelies:
- The first game was released with a soundtrack album, Killer Cuts.
- KI Gold had its own soundtrack CD called Gold Cuts.
- Killer App: The SNES port of the original Killer Instinct helped push a lot of units thanks to the success the game found in the arcades. Additionally, the 2013 game is this for the Xbox One, and is generally considered to be one of the better exclusives for that specific console.
- Sequel Gap: The last KI game to be released before the 2013 reboot was in 1996, making a seventeen-year gap between the two games.
- Urban Legend of Zelda: Quite a few over the years. A popular one claimed that there was a mirror in T.J. Combo's stage that would let the player see Orchid's breasts if she performed her Flasher finishing move in front of it. Of course, no such mirror exists.
- What Could Have Been:
- Killer Instinct (1994)
- As the arcade version says when the game is beaten, Killer Instinct was originally going to be a Nintendo 64 exclusive, when it was still known as the Nintendo Ultra 64.
- The game was originally meant to have a character customization feature, with players able to set their Power, Speed, and Defense stats, change their default color, and select finishers. A barcode would then be printed, which could be scanned by the machine to retrieve a player's custom character data.
- In the original pitch, Orchid was going to a blonde acrobat named Wanda. The roster also included a wizard named Midas and an Optional Boss, a Thunder God named Tremor.
- Many characters had their names changed during development. Cinder had the most changes, going from names like "Pyrotech", "Heat Shade" ,"Meltdown", "Magma", and "Afterburner". Sabrewulf had "Newton" and "Werewolf". Thunder was "King Thunder", Spinal was "Argo", and Riptor was "Toxin". T.J. Combo's original name was the much more goofy "Mr. Fist", which is referenced in Cinder's trailer in KI 2013 and is an unlockable fight title for Cinder players.
- While Riptor's design was basically set when they were called "Toxin," their bio was completely different, describing them as an Atlantean lizard-man.
- Funky's Flights' theme was originally composed for Killer Instinct, as shown on this video.
- Killer Instinct 2
- KI2 had a vampire character planned as one of its new entrants, but they were scrapped during development. The character's theme was salvaged and later used during the Count Batula sequence in Conker's Bad Fur Day. The series wouldn't get a vampire added to the roster until Mira's debut 20 years later.
- Allegedly, a fully complete version of Killer Instinct 2 was developed for the SNES but never released.
- Killer Instinct (1994)
- Working Title: Killer Instinct originally went by the name of "Melee" when it was first pitched, and later on "Brute Force". A logo for the game called "Thriller Instinct" is also present in the game's files, which was possibly made just in case Nintendo's Never Say "Die" rule applied (surprisingly, it didn't).
