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Showdown! Which is the better fighting game? Mortal Kombat 2 (1993) or Killer Instinct (1994)?

Which was and still is the better game?

  • Mortal Kombat 2 (1993 Midway Games)

    Votes: 105 55.6%
  • Killer Instinct (1994 Rare)

    Votes: 84 44.4%

  • Total voters
    189
In the thread asking if any of the early 90's western fighters aged well, Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat 2 where far and ahead the winners, these two classic fighting franchises took the world by storm when they released, each being massive sellers and hits at the arcade.

Between Mortal Kombat 2 and Killer Instinct which game do you believe has aged best, and is the better game overall?

Many hours spend playing these two in the arcades and on game systems back in the day. Just one year after the media hit storm that was MK 2 we had another massive player turning heads back to back. Crazy times back then. Pit Fighter>Street Fighter 2> MK>MK2>KI>Ki2>MK4>Tekken 3 back to back to back to back...
 

Bankai

Member
I really liked Killer Instinct on SNES, but... come one... Mortal Kombat II is so epik, it's not even funny.

maxresdefault.jpg


Well okay, little bit funny.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
the fuck? it's exactly the opposite... MK2 has the most shallow fighting system ever.

and KI looks like hot garbage
I am going from my perception as a kid. I could pull off the Mk2 combos. I couldn’t do the KI ones.
 

truth777

Banned
MKII may be the best game when it comes to successfully expanding a universe with a sequel.
It shifted from a tournament on a hidden island to another dimension with a variety of arenas, almost doubled the fighters while making Reptile and Shang Tsung playable, introduced the warlord Shao Kahn, took risks by removing Kano/Sonya, and added Friendships/Babalities.

It took what worked with the original, made it better, and made more of it.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
KI because was the new shit, and it was a great new shit

MK II was the first one better, MK III that was a huge deal
 

_Ex_

Member
I played both in their time. I loved MK2, very much enjoyed its atmosphere and gameplay. I did not like KI. I thought it looked like plastic shiny shit and its gameplay was boring. So MK2 > KI easily.
 
mk2 was harder ,so, the combo killers that could be pulled off , made you look superstar on ki , so ki, always had a bigger crowd on release, in the arcades.

mk2 for me , though ki, will always be special.
 
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johntown

Banned
Had it been Mortal Kombat 3 my vote would be different but the first Killer Instinct was better than MK2 IMO.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
KI.

MK2 was good at the time, but KI still plays fine imo. It has a versatile combo system and quick movement unlike MK2 that is very slow and limited.
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
KI.

MK2 was good at the time, but KI still plays fine imo. It has a versatile combo system and quick movement unlike MK2 that is very slow and limited.

KI's combo system was hitting predefined buttons to create combos. It was cool to watch, and i liked KI. The combos in MK2 relied on good timing, and IMO were more rewarding to pull off.
 

Boneless

Member
Mk2 is quite similar to 1, also never really liked the endless uppercut playstyle. KI was quite special, loved the characters, combos and sound effects.
 
I suck at fighting games but I am an expert on which one I prefer. I chose the one I preferred. Subscribe to my Patreon to find out which one it was! I don't have a patreon
 
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Arkam

Member
Had both and preferred KI by a mile at the time. Much more fluid combat system that felt better doing combos. I mean there were some characters that I could juggle my opponents. MK2 I think had the cooler characters (Reptile!!) and had sweet fatalities... but the combat felt much more wait and counter... often with that shitty squatting uppercut.

But I also had the Game Gear version of MK2, which was waaay inferior to the console version. But honestly put more hours into that than KI and MK2 on the snes.
 
I Voted MK2

But I will admit when Killer Instinct AND Mortal Kombat II came out I was a kid, man I thought those were the best graphics ever. Was in the arcade the first time I saw my dad play MKII and told him "They got real people on the screen" lol
 

TLZ

Banned
I didn't even know killer instinct existed. We didn't have it. Only found out about it the first time on xbox one.
 

Naked Lunch

Member
I didn't even know killer instinct existed. We didn't have it. Only found out about it the first time on xbox one.
Interesting. In the states KI and the "Ultra 64" were the hype machine for the N64.
Of course N64 ended up being nowhere near as powerful as the tech used in the arcade KI and KI Gold on N64 was pretty crap compared to that first arcade game.
 

RayHell

Member
Those are two titan which I played like crazy. Killer Instinct combat system has more dept. Just the way you could speed up or slow down the combo by quick pressing or holding. But PVP I had more fun with MK2. I'll say KI but it's a close match.
 

dcx4610

Member
I was obsessed with both. KI made it extra fun by having the scoreboard with highest combos for each character and trying to get your initials on there. As much as I love KI, it hasn't aged well and it's hard to pick up and play today. You need to have the combo chains memorized and I still don't quite understand the mechanics beyond memorization. Still, fantastic soundtrack and the graphics were really special back in the day.

MK2 aged much better. You still need to figure out the special moves but it's easy to play. It's not exactly deep but you have a lot of characters to play with and I had some really good competitive matches back in the day.
 
MK3 is a better parallel to KI due to both games featuring a combo system.

MK 2 was closer to SF2.

OP must have been thinking about violence rather than systems.
 
Interesting. In the states KI and the "Ultra 64" were the hype machine for the N64.
Of course N64 ended up being nowhere near as powerful as the tech used in the arcade KI and KI Gold on N64 was pretty crap compared to that first arcade game.
It was an advertisement for the Ultra 64 in Arcades everywhere including Europe and Japan which is why I find it weird TLZ never heard of it before considering the first game in particular was quite big.

What's hilarious is Nintendo had to makes compromises on the N64 to get that price to power ratio and it was still weaker than the arcade machines and those were based off supposed Ultra 64 specs and release in 1994. The fact the N64 can barely run a stable copy of Cruisn USa is laughable even today. It couldn't really run KI either, they went with some polish on the character graphics to the expense of everything else.

MK3 is a better parallel to KI due to both games featuring a combo system.

MK 2 was closer to SF2.

OP must have been thinking about violence rather than systems.
Or read the first sentence in the OP.
 
In the thread asking if any of the early 90's western fighters aged well, Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat 2 where far and ahead the winners, these two classic fighting franchises took the world by storm when they released, each being massive sellers and hits at the arcade.

Between Mortal Kombat 2 and Killer Instinct which game do you believe has aged best, and is the better game overall?

Many hours spend playing these two in the arcades and on game systems back in the day. Just one year after the media hit storm that was MK 2 we had another massive player turning heads back to back. Crazy times back then. Pit Fighter>Street Fighter 2> MK>MK2>KI>Ki2>MK4>Tekken 3 back to back to back to back...

It was an advertisement for the Ultra 64 in Arcades everywhere including Europe and Japan which is why I find it weird TLZ never heard of it before considering the first game in particular was quite big.

What's hilarious is Nintendo had to makes compromises on the N64 to get that price to power ratio and it was still weaker than the arcade machines and those were based off supposed Ultra 64 specs and release in 1994. The fact the N64 can barely run a stable copy of Cruisn USa is laughable even today. It couldn't really run KI either, they went with some polish on the character graphics to the expense of everything else.


Or read the first sentence in the OP.
I read further than you did, and noticed the OP skipped MK3 to MK4.

You thought you were being a smartaas, but it's the other way.
 
I read further than you did, and noticed the OP skipped MK3 to MK4.

You thought you were being a smartaas, but it's the other way.
The OP was talking about hit storm games back to back and you think MK3 the one that fell off was a massive hit storm like MK2 and KI where (in rcades and console too)? Seriously? Come on. They had to quickly come out with UMK3 to stop damage.
 

sn0man

Member
MK2 was an event. I didn’t play much KI till gold on N64 so I am biased, but MK2 for me. Arcade, home port; it was all super impressive when MK2 came on the scene.
 

Wonko_C

Member
I love, LOOOOVE every Killer Instinct ever released. They're still incredibly fun to me, but I have to say the first KI is completely borked as a fighting game: No grabs, meaning it was very easy to just keep guarding all day. That by itself wouldn't be a big deal, but it was made much worse by the fact that there is literally NO BLOCKSTUN AT ALL. The result? The game quickly devolved into players turtling all day until one decided to attack, resulting in the attacking player guaranteed eating a combo.

Killer Instinct 2 fixed those things and was much better as a result. KI 2013 is amazing, though: It pulled-off every single fighting game mechanic superbly, even the most obscure ones (and teaches you about them in its tutorial), plus they refined the combo system into its own meta-game, which results in some of the most hypest, craziest mind games I've seen.

All of them looked and sounded amazing for their time, so it's a big reason why I still love them, and I still remember it drawing crowds like no other game in history. But as someone who's not even a Mortal Kombat fan, MK2 functions better as a fighting game, even if it's a lot more limited and rigid than the first KI.
 
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SoraNoKuni

Member
I literally learned killer instinct when Microsoft remade it for Xbox, MK on the other hand...

But I think that's mostly a Europe thing, KI never really made a success here.(I am not sure about that)
 

baphomet

Member
If you're looking at them with 2021 eyes and knowledge, KI holds up much better gameplay wise. MKII had very little going on for it as far as fighting systems.

MKII destroys KI in art direction and graphics. It's still a beautiful game.
 
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