Killer Instinct 2

As with most fighting games and indeed its predecessor, two characters square off with the goal of depleting the opponent's life bar. As with the original Killer Instinct, when a character's original life bar is fully depleted, he or she will fall to the ground, and immediately begin on his or her second lifebar.

As with the first game, Killer Instinct 2 relies on an automatic combo subsystem in its matches. The matches, as with Killer Instinct, revolve around a three strength system (Quick, Medium and Fierce). However, normal moves have lost a lot of their priority and range, as well as gaining extra recovery time. Throws have been added into the game to deal with blocking characters (as opposed to the top attack in Killer Instinct).

Killer Instinct 2 follows on where the first installment left off. Eyedol's death at the hands of Black Orchid accidentally sets off a time warp, transporting some of the combatants back in time and allowing the Demon Lord Gargos (Eyedol's opponent) to escape from Limbo.

Now, trapped 2000 years in the past, the warriors that survived Killer Instinct, along with several new faces, fight for the right to face Gargos in combat. Each character that survived the journey from the first game have corresponding backstories, while new characters in this installment are native inhabitants of this past time period. J. Combo, just want to get home.

Development began shortly after the release of its predecessor. This was done by a small team led by Lee Schneuman and Ken Lobb. One of its programmers Martin Hollis left partway as development started to work on Goldeneye 007 (1997). According to Lobb, eliminating excessive defense play "was the absolute highest priority.

I felt that this was not a problem for experts, but it hurt beginners. We now reward the aggressor big time". The team used the same hardware from its predecessor. They believed the characters needed redesigns.

Though not as critically acclaimed as its predecessor, Killer Instinct 2 still garnered positive reviews and was a commercial success. Critics praised its improvements, combo system, graphics, and sound, but others were critical of its inconsistent frame rate, slow pace, and lack of advancement from its predecessor. A reviewer for Next Generation commented that while the game includes new fighting elements such as a super bar, the essence of the original game is essentially recycled. He also criticized that while the characters are larger and more detailed, this is at the cost of slower game speed and a choppier frame rate. Summarizing that "if you like the style of fighting that relies more on memorizing combos than hand-eye coordination and, in a way, skill, Killer Instinct II is full of that same fighting style", he scored it 3 out of 5 stars.

Brazilian magazine SuperGamePower gave the arcade version 5 out of 5 on all five categories.