Creating a story is easy. Thinking up characters, a setting and a plot takes minutes with good inspiration, and with the right motivation they can be put to pen in record time. Yet, story-writing is always evolving-- new ways to present and communicate one's story arrive every day. Whether through the spoken word or written, the audio book or film, stories are changing shape as every day rolls by.
Innovations come by the dozens in our modern time. One particular innovation, however, holds the key to something this author had never considered before--and he loves it. “Killer Instinct,” developed by Rare Studios and published by Microsoft, is a game which innovates in both the details and the meta. As a fighting game, it has the expected--punch this guy, kick this guy, throw that guy off a cliff--but it puts a few interesting tweaks in what gamers considered a perfected niche. For example, once the player has defeated their opponent, they may continue to "juggle" them by repeatedly smacking them, so long as they do not touch the ground. This is nothing new-- yet what “Killer Instinct” allows is for the music to be times to every hit. Smack him in the face? Guitar solo. Punch him in the gut? Drum kick. Grab his foot and pile-drive him face-first into the mud? Bass drop. It is this kind of brutal satisfaction that makes “Killer Instinct” so fun.
Yet fun is just a means to an end in telling a story. You can't write a story using only fun--though some Hollywood scriptwriters would argue one could. Stories require time for characterization, world building and point of view to get established, right? Not according to “Killer Instinct.” Rare Studios knew their audience. Fighting game fans don't want long exposition or dialogue conversations a la "Mass Effect" to build their world, they just want to punch things. Thus Rare put their story telling in the most genius place they could--in the music.
From the very moment one boots the game, you'd think you got smacked yourself by Mick Gordon's incredible soundtrack. The main theme--called, "The Instinct," is a head-banging 90s-esque guitar piece worthy of an award by itself. Have a listen--notice how the music tells exactly what kind of game “Killer Instinct” is:
Yet this is--literally--only the beginning, as the tracks within the game are the true centerpieces. For starters, take the character Thunder, a stereotypical Indian brave armed with twin tomahawks on a quest to avenge his brother. While playing his stages, the player hears the whistling of a flute, the pounding of drums, and the chants of Native American men (courtesy of the Nez Perce Indian Nation), evoking just whom this character through music alone.
On the opposite end of the music spectrum we have Maya, an Amazonian warrior (The jungle, not the mythical island) and the last surviving member of an order of warriors sworn to keep a demon sealed within their temple. The bad guys release the demon, and Maya goes on a one-woman quest of reclamation. Her theme, Temperance and Vengeance, named after her dual curved daggers, feels like her demon-sealing temple was actually a jungle rave party.
Then finally comes the best example of storytelling through music out of them all. Hisako, a Japanese vengeful spirit, is overcome with rage as the bad guys tear through her village and desecrate her grave. Rising from the underworld she goes forth to reap the souls of those who'd dare defile her memory.
"Killer Instinct" is a game that stands out from the myriad of other fighting games by its music and technical innovations. Its addition of punch = guitar solo is brutally satisfying, yet its top marks are for its music and sound design. Few other games have used music to give their characters personalities, and those whom have never used music as the only source of characterization for their game. In all, "Killer Instinct" is a game that might be remembered for its story, maybe for its mechanics and gameplay, but for this author, it is the music which sets it apart most.
I mean, in what other game can you play as a genetically-modified Velociraptor?
