I'm probably in the minority here but I liked Final Fantasy III (DS) better than Final Fantasy V.
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1. Radiant Historia
2. Halo: Combat Evolved (Master Chief Collection)
3. Halo 2 (Master Chief Collection)
4. Killer Instinct (Season 1 Story Mode)
5. 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
6. Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox One)
7. Rayman Legends (Xbox One)
8. Mortal Kombat X (Xbox One)
9. Killer Instinct (Season 2/S2 Story Mode)After a long dry spell, I have finally completed another game! During E3, Iron Galaxy and Microsoft Studios released Season 2 Story Mode as the last large update for Season 2. The previous update in May saw the release of Season 2's final character ARIA.
First, Iron Galaxy should be commended for cranking out a new character every month for the past 9 months. That is a pretty grueling development schedule and they did a great job with every character in Season 2. Many fighting games are guilty of creating characters that are essentially clones of another (Ryu, Ken, Akuma, etc.) and Killer Instinct does not do that at all. Each character is very unique and they try to have a wide variety of fighting game archetypes (Rushdown, Zoners, Projectile Rushdown, Grapplers & more!).
They really thought outside the box with some characters such as Kan-Ra and Aganos. They don't really fit the description of any traditional archetype. Kan-Ra is described as a trap-grappler by relying on onscreen obstacles for defense and to start his combos. Aganos is a very large character similar to Juggernaut or Sentinel from the Marvel fighters but the similarities end there. Aganos relies on creating armor for himself that absorb hits allowing him to safely approach his opponents. He can also use his armor resource to create new stage boundary walls, making it difficult for your opponent to get away. Aganos can also pickup the walls he puts down and use them as a giant club giving his incredible range. Lastly, he can also punch his opponents through the walls for major damage using a special attack that can also be used a combo ender.
Season 2 also saw the release of a few fan favorites from Killer Instinct's past. TJ Combo, Maya, Riptor, and Cinder all made it back into the franchise. Personally I think that all the redesigns look and play great. And for those that don't particularly care for the new looks, Iron Galaxy made some fantastic retro skins for these characters. Cinder and Riptor in particular look pretty spot on to their KI1 appearances.
As for the new story mode, it is a large improvement over Season 1's story mode. Season 1's story mode was very unimpressive. It was only a splash screen bio for each character with still shot endings and nothing in-between the fights. Barely any story at all. This time around, each character has at least two voice narrated cut scenes along with loading screens between fights that explain why you are fighting who you are fighting (usually). It's not MK9 or MKX caliber but it is leaps and bounds better than Season 1. Considering KI's much much smaller budget, I think they have done a good job with what they had to work with.
Another new mode that was added in Season 2 is Shadow Mode. KI Shadows are AI characters that you create which act like you do in a fight. As of right now, it is limited to the Season 1 cast + TJ Combo and Maya. When you play as a character that you have shadow enabled, you are given the option to save your fight data when completing a match vs other characters. For example, if you have shadow enabled Spinal and you play an online ranked match against some using any of the currently shadow capable cast, you can save your fight data at the end of the match. There is also a Shadow Survival mode where you take of random people's Shadow AI characters for Shadow points. Shadow points are used to challenge other people's Shadows directly. Should you win the challenge, you earn more points. Fighting other people's Shadows is far more satisfying than playing versus the traditional CPU AI. Most fighting game veterans know that the CPU AI will eventually "cheat" at higher difficulties. The CPU AI reaction time eventually outpaces human reaction times which makes for very frustrating matches. With the Shadow AI, the reaction times are very much human creating a better experience.
I also wanted to note that the soundtrack for Season 2 is every bit as good as Season 1's. Mick Gordon has done a phenomenal job with it, drawing inspiration from the classic KI1 tracks for returning characters. However, I think some of his best work is with the original themes for new characters. My personal favorite is
Agano's theme followed closely by
Hisako's.
A few things are still in store for KI in the immediate future. They are going to finish Shadow enabling the rest of the Season 2 cast and they are going to flesh out Season 1's bonus character - Shadow Jago. Shadow Jago will be getting his own moveset thanks to the Shadow Jago Community Fund which allowed players to purchase the Shadow Jago skin for the first time without a Day 1 Xbox Live Gold card. Everyone that owns the Shadow Jago skin will get his updated moveset when it is released. Also the first $100,000 raised is being added to KI tournament prize pots - a nice gesture by Microsoft and Iron Galaxy. I also think that Season 3 is very likely to happen due to some hints in Story mode and the fact that KI is being ported to PC. I suspect the may announce something at EVO or Gamescom.
Admittedly, a big part of my Killer Instinct fandom is nostalgia driven. The original Killer Instinct was my favorite 90's fighter. It had a little bit of everything that a teenage boy could want at the time. Werewolves, sword wielding skeletons, a Predator/Terminator hybrid, an obligatory busty female fighter, and a dinosaur! Don't get me wrong, those things are still awesome (though busty females fighters have lost some appeal due to maturing a bit) but I firmly believe that the new KI is one of the best fighters on the market. It has great gameplay, an intriguing and varied cast plus the best netcode that I have ever come across. So if you have access to an Xbox One, you should definitely give it a try if you like fighters. If you don't have an Xbox One, it coming to PC in the near future with cross-platform multiplayer.
