Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Kind of kills it for local players. I mean don't get me wrong, it's great pro players are jumping on the game so enthusiasticlly, it just sucks that local player like myself who haven't had the change to get extenssive time with the game, have almost no chance of actually winning it.

Thanks, dude. And I agree. I'm unbelievably excited.

As for the point about equal footing among players, not only do I agree, but when I was originally invited to head out to the Houston tournament, I said no. "Drive 4 hours to compete in a game I don't even know how to l play yet? I'm good, dude. Thanks."

However, due to circumstances I'm not allowed to discuss, I will be playing the game early. I should have a few hours of practice under my belt by the time I hit the tournament.

I never played the original but hvve heard a lot about it. What was the first one like exactly? I want to know if I should pick it up when it comes out.

In essence, it's sort of a mixture of everything that was popular at the time in fighting games (with Mortal Kombat as the focal point). What set it apart was the back-then unbelievable graphics and sound and the incredibly open combo system.

It's hard to see it now, but at the time it was released, there was no fighting game like it in terms of presentation.

It's been confirmed that you can unlock the Killer Cuts soundtrack in the new game as well as use the original KI1 stage backgrounds as background skins in Dojo mode

courtesy of Rotendo from the Double Helix forum:

Dammit, that game looks good!

Played the game for roughly three and a half hours today. An hour of that time was in practice mode, and the remainder was spent either in matches or waiting for my turn in matches.

The short review is that the game is amazing, but I think everyone here already knew that.

The controls feel very natural, and the combos are incredibly intuitive. The d-pad on the Xbone controller is far better than 360's, but it didn't by any means convert me away from the TE stick. If you were concerned that the d-pad would be as bad as the 360 d-pad, I can assure you it's much better. Probably still not as good as the PS3's, though.

Now for Glacius. People said he was a zoner, and based on the footage, I felt it was more accurate to say he was a low-risk offensive character. I was half right. Glacius' main game is to connect with either F+MP, Jump-in FK (which if spaced right, is completely safe), or occasionally Shatter. All those moves lead to auto-doubles for long-distance combo options. I was right about the fact that you're not gonna want to chill out full screen throwing projectiles and unblockable specials. You'll get blown up if you do that.
Here's where I was off: he's not low-risk. There is nothing low-risk about this guy. He zones with specials not because that's his best way of doing damage, but because has to put shit on screen at ALL times to prevent rushdown. Once the opponent gets near you, it's panic mode with Glacius. My friend was using Sadira, and when he jumped in I'd anti-air with puddle-cut. My friend would be like, "lol, good shit, but I'm still right in your face and can blow-up all your normals. GG, bra." In summary, yes, Glacius is a zoner, but in the sense that Dhalsim is a zoner. Nothing like MK9 freddy or SF4 Sagat.

That said, he's still my main, and his combos are gorgeous. All his specials make so much sense when used in conjunction. Connecting with a long distance special like shatter or hail and then auto-doubling into shoulder charge... it's fucking beautiful. Too bad he has no dash. That was a bit unnecessary, IMO.

BTW, my friend was just trolling me when he said to keep quiet about the details of the "early copy." The fucking game was at the Microsoft store ten minutes away from my house. Colors and stages were locked, but other than that, the game was complete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-hDsVbDEg
Launch Trailer

http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/microsoft2013/xboxone/killerinstinct/fulgore_610.jpg
Fulgore Art

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/killer_instinct/b/xboxone/archive/2013/11/21/exclusive-killer-instinct-launch-trailer-confirms-the-return-of-fulgore.aspx
Source.

Wow, this is looking so much better now that it's further along, where it originally looked like a SFIV mod.

HOLY $#!+

Orchid's reveal got me stoked. It wouldn't be KI without her.
Glacius' ice effects look sweet!



Ka-Tra

As a 90's kid, this brings a tear to my eye lol I've been waiting for a new Killer Instinct game for years and now it's here!

KI Official Launch Trailer
[edit]: I think I'm actually going to skip the tournament tonight. As much as i would love to go, from the sound it there are already a ton of players at my location hours, before the Tournament even starts. Plus it sounds like the pro-players are already ruining the tournament into something more favorable to them. Apparently some of the pro-players have managed to convince the store manager to make an exception at the Burlington, MA event and change the tournaments format because they're making lengthy trips out to the even. Instead of single match, single elimination. they managed to get the format changed to 2/3 sets single elimination.

Played some more today in my local Microsoft Store. It felt nice and smooth but it certainly felt like something I could only play in small doses.

I got top 32 at the tournament! There were 128 entrants, so that means I only won two games, but given how hard it is to use Glacius, I'll take both those victories with pride. I'll try to have the matches posted soon.

Congrats on those wins. Glacius has a huge skill gap from what I understand, so definitely earned.

I'm actually curious on the tournament results. CD JR. won the Burlington, MA event and I read Justin Wong was doing good in the SoCal event last night before I went to bed.

Fuck you, Microsoft. Fuck you for putting out an exclusive I actually wanted.

After years of "man, you should play Halo" (I'm going to a fucking Halo party tomorrow, but I'll be playing fighting games) and being pressured into buying Gears, Microsoft finally utilizes their only fucking fighter IP on a console I have no interest in.

I'll tell the truth, if ever financially possible in the future, I'll be getting an Xbone. Even then, it'd be after some hefty KI updates and probably after I get a PS4 (or a Wii U, if they can steady that ship).

If anything, I hope there's a way to win at least one of these consoles for free.

I think there's Xbone giveaway codes on Doritos and Mountain Dew?

In the big Doritos bags? I saved two for some reason. Codes of some sort.

I'll have to check those out when I get home....and girl you know it's true.

Again mad props for pulling off 2 wins with Glacius. I just gave him a try a little while ago and damn is he hard as hell to figure out. I don't think I've come across a tougher character is a fighting game to use than him.

Thanks, dude. Glacius is super awkward, and it took a while before he made sense to me.

He began to feel more comfortable once I started executing his best option wherever he happened to be standing instead of constantly trying to move him to an ideal spot on screen. I just said "Fuck it. I'm done moving around. Trying to move around has done nothing but screw me so far. I'm just going to do the most advantageous option wherever I happen to be standing, and go for F+MP when I'm at the right distance." If things get tense, I usually just Neutral-Jump Heavy Kick. Neutral-Jump Heavy Kick is almost never the wrong thing to do (unless you're hella close).

Still waiting on my friend to post the videos, BTW.

I'm finding a lot of the other characters pretty easy to get basic, lengthy combo strings out of. Using the same formula Max showed off in the first jago Ultra video or chaining wind kick-> crouching MK manual, to build the KV meter before doing an ender to cash out and get some decent combo damage, usually around 30%. I'm finding people new to the game online though getting pretty salt over it.

Also it seems a lot of people like to use Orchid online. Most of the better players seem to be sticking with her. She's actually pretty quick and most of her moves and shadow moves combo pretty well together. I think she might have the easiest mix-up game of all the characters.

Who is the final boss??

There is no boss or story mode at the moment. That will come in march.

Right now all there is is local match, survival, online practice and 32 trials in dojo mode. There is also some accessories, stages, concept art, music and player card customization options to unlock.

And who is Shadow Jago then, right now? I've heard, that he was supposed to be some sort of "temporary boss character" before real boss would have been introduced.

Oh gosh. Listen to that Orchid theme, It's fantastic. And Thunder's sounds cool too.

He could be. They did say that, but there is no story mode at the moment, so technically there is no boss character. Shadow Jago isn't any different than normal jago as far as his moves goes. He isn't OP like a boss usually is.